bruceweiart on ebay?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/bruceweiart/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

this guy sells some sexy instruments and to start off at such a low price for auctions when barely anyone bids for them... has anyone ever bought from him? seems too good to be true

Aloha,
Seems to me that the ukuleles Tudorp was selling came from Bruce Wei in Vietnam. Had some favorable reviews of his instruments by members here on UU forum. Maybe someone will chime in soon, or Tudorp may offer some insite.......................BO.........................

Hes legit. I have bought many ukes from him. Decent out of the box, but QA isn't the best. About 20% have issues, but he makes good on those. The 80% that turn out pretty good, are in bad need of a good set up. But, Bruce is good people, and builds a pretty decent uke. He's safe to buy from.

Let me qualify what I am about to say. I am not going by a visual inspection of the woods, but by the photos the builder himself has posted. Photos of the reduced quality often found on ebay don't make for positive wood identification.

Nonetheless, the claim of "Mahogany" and "Rosewood" seem like typical lumber marketing. All kinds of woods are given names like "Peruvian Walnut", "Brazilian Cherry", etc. They mean nothing other than there is a very superficial resemblance to the well known woods whose names they steal.

Phillipine Mahogany, for example, is not a true mahogany at all, and I'm sure it wouldn't make any kind of decent tonewood. Nontheless, some of these "wannabe" woods can actually be excellent tonewoods. It just makes one suspicious when the woods in the photographs seem to be something other than what is advertised.

i like mine

I recently bough a tenor ukulele from bruceweiart on ebay, I received it in the mail the other day. I am very happy with it! It looks gorgeous, it plays beautifully... I have an aNueNue papa II concert uke I quite like, but this bruce wei uke has so much more sustain and is much louder. I don't know what expert uke players would have to say about the action, but to me it seems fine and the uke is quite nice to play.

It depends on whether you are a uke snob or not. There are many uke snobs who think these ukes from vietnam are fakes or frauds, and who prefer to blow their money on Martins because it is THE BEST. Personally I think you get a great instrument for the price when you order from bruceweiart, but you do have to keep in mind that it is a bit of a gamble because you don't see the instrument beforehand so you should be prepared for the possibility that is is not perfect. I was prepared for this, but in the end I am quite happy and have been showing off my new uke. Everyone agrees it's gorgeous.

If you are not comfortable with the uncertainty of buying a vietname uke on ebay, then perhaps you might want to pay more and get a reputed brand so that you know exactly what you are getting. That being said I think Bruce Wei makes beautiful instruments and is honest about what he is selling. I even compared my uke to the pictures on ebay once I received it, and it was spot on. I can tell that the uke pictured is the one I was shipped from the details in the wood.

I just played played a Bruce Wei uke here in Sydney the last week, it sounded decent to me, nothing too extremely amazing, but nothing horribly wrong with it either. I didn't get much time to inspect it, but the finish seemed a little thick to me, and the inlay seemed somewhat low quality. Overall IMO, it had a good sound, and with a good set up, like Tudorp says, they would be a pretty decent uke.

Mine just arrived today, it's advertised as solid acacia koa, looks good, but having problem tuning it up, particularly the A, it vibrates, .....anyone can suggest how to set it up correctly?

Tudorp said:

Hes legit. I have bought many ukes from him. Decent out of the box, but QA isn't the best. About 20% have issues, but he makes good on those. The 80% that turn out pretty good, are in bad need of a good set up. But, Bruce is good people, and builds a pretty decent uke. He's safe to buy from.

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My only question is, how does he make "good on" the instruments that have issues when shipping costs are so high? A good setup is pretty much expected for any lower end uke but a 1 in 5 chance of getting a bad uke is extremely high so it's something you definitely have to prepare for. Also a good setup as in just some fret, saddle and nut filing or do some parts need replacing. I've thought about picking up one of his ukes before, but was unsure about the quality.

This is second day I had this brucewei uke solid acacia koa tenor it's now playing ok , the buzzing A string now gone, comparing the sound to my kala solid mahogany concert not too bad at all, the finish is good, but I can see the inside workmanship is not that good....but anyway at least i have not wasted my $157 Inc delivery....I wish I can compare it to a kala tenor

I just ordered 2 ukes from bruceweiart. A mahogany tenor and a koa soprano. Waiting for them now.

I didn't know there were any 'uke snobs' on UU. I learn something new every day.

I bought an acacia tenor uke from bruceweiart a couple years ago and was quite satisfied at first. Slowly, the neck bowed and the fingerboard cracked... it has become completely unplayable. I'm guessing that the high humidity it Vietnam is the problem... I also suspect that the environment that he builds the ukes in is uncontrolled. Btw, I have many solid wood instruments and keep them all in a humidity controlled room. I think I only paid about 90 bucks or so shipped, so I wasn't expecting much anyway. I've learned my lesson however.

dweez said:

I bought an acacia tenor uke from bruceweiart a couple years ago and was quite satisfied at first. Slowly, the neck bowed and the fingerboard cracked... it has become completely unplayable. I'm guessing that the high humidity it Vietnam is the problem... I also suspect that the environment that he builds the ukes in is uncontrolled. Btw, I have many solid wood instruments and keep them all in a humidity controlled room. I think I only paid about 90 bucks or so shipped, so I wasn't expecting much anyway. I've learned my lesson however.

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That's good to know...The key to an instrument is how they hold up after a couple of years. Lots of instruments look nice and lot's of new luthiers popping up these days.

It makes sense to pay a little more and go with a company that has customer service.

A few years ago I was on a visit to Baja Mexico and I stopped in a small guitar shop. The luthiers there were building guitars and selling their work. I bought a requite that was beautiful; it played and sounded great. What I have now at my home is a badly bent and bowed thing that can't be played and used to be a Requinto. What I learned is that when you build a guitar (or ukulele) with woods that have been inadequately cured and dried, the wood will eventually bend and distort. Thus my Requinto was fantastic when it was new and after a few months was a piece of bent and useless wood.

The lesson learned was there there are luthiers in some countries who will put a lot of work into beautiful hand-crafted instruments but the wood isn't going to last.

mednuke said:

It depends on whether you are a uke snob or not. There are many uke snobs who think these ukes from vietnam are fakes or frauds, and who prefer to blow their money on Martins because it is THE BEST.

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I'm glad you like your Bruce Wei uke. I think it's entirely possible that those who don't like them are not snobs; the fact that somone doesn't like what you like doesn't make them a snob, it makes them a person with an opinion. However, you seem to feel the need to denigrate Martins and the people who "blow their money" on them... as if Martin buyers are too dumb not to realize how they are wasting their money... which, sadly, makes you a snob.

Quite an old topic but I'd like to chime in with a few comments (on topic).

I've ordered two guitars over the past few years, both solid koa and they were at the more higher price range of Bruce's instruments. I am still enjoying both of them a lot.

More recently (two months ago) I have also bought a solid mahogany concert tenor, nothing too fancy on the outside (unlike some others in his eBay shop), but it plays beautifully. Wasn't that expensive either. I'm playing it at least as much as my tenor Kala limited golden acacia these days.

I'd also like to note that whenever I had contact with Bruce he was extremely friendly and helpful. When I asked about the ukulele stands (when I was ordering the ukulele) he even gave me a free one!

Hopefully the ukulele can hold its quality over the next few years.

PS: I also think that Bruce has improved a lot over the years. He has been doing this for quite a while now and I've noticed that there are less and less reports of cracking, low quality, etc...

Bruce's Uke's are very nice!

I bought an Acacia Tenor and it is well made. I've asked Bruce to lower the action on his future uke's and he said, he tried it and liked the sound.

The negative reviews come from older posts of his earlier uke's from his beginning days and the stories just keep recirculating by others who read it. Bruce's newest ukulele's are very nice and I even got free shipping!

I bought an Acacia Tenor Pineapple uke from Bruce for my husband and it is a delightful ukulele to play! The neck is nice & slim and a joy to play. We had the setup fine tuned by a local luthier & Bruce compensated me for that cost - so I was very happy.

I got is as a 75th birthday present for Keith & he loves it as he's never played an instrument before. We've had it for nearly 12 months now & no hassles with any untoward movement at all. I would be very surprised if we have any problems with it further down the track!



Roberta

Bruce Wei Uke

Hi

I bought a mahogany tenor with single cutaway a few weeks back and I haven't been able to find a single thing wrong with it! the build quality is excellent, the finish really good - it's satin and I guess I'd prefer to have a natural finish, but really the uke is faultless.

It played well straight out of the box - I thought the action looked maybe a bit high but after playing it for 20 minutes I didn't notice it, and I haven't made any adjustments.

The tone sounds good to me, though I've never played a "quality" uke so don't really have anything to compare it to, but it has much warmer tone than the Mahalo tenor I had been playing.

I bought it on ebay and it arrived on my doorstep in NZ exactly a week later..... I wouldn't hesitate to buy another..... they are a real bargain!

I should add that I have no connection with the seller or any music dealer

Mike

I've been considering a Bruce Weiart uke or tenor guitar for a long time. I've read many, many reviews of his products, as well as those of other SE Asian makers. In general the majority of the complaints have always been about the woods drying out. There have been others about build and sound quality but what it seems from most of them is that excess decoration (i.e. the inlay) on the top deadens the sound. That's pretty much true of all instruments, however. The earlier reviews are generally worse than later ones.

I have to say that no luthier can really account for all environments. I have had an Ohana crack, the bridge lift off my custom cigar box uke, and even the neck separate from my Boat Paddle uke (both of which were easily fixed). I have some ukes that always pop a string when the weather shifts - their necks move that much - and all of them go out of tune because of changing humidity. Of perhaps three dozen ukes I've owned or still own, I don't know one which is not responsive to the environment.

If others have one of his ukes, I'd like to hear more. His prices are certainly affordable.