The cons with buying ukuleles online/Tanglewood ukuleles first impression review

I made an online purchase of a Tanglewood Tenor Ukulele from an ebay account for a Melbourne music store and after it finished shipping here, it turns out that they sent me a concert version of the ukulele
When I took the concert version to play though, it was actually a good instrument. The intonation was great, the action was fine, the build seemed solid and most importantly, it has a great bass to treble ratio; not to bass sounding and not to trebly. It didn't sound so trebly as compared to my other concert which the fact that the bass to treble ratio was good in a concert was amazing in my opinion.

I WOULD have bought the ukulele at my local music shop but the prices in Sydney, Australia are crazy. For example, the tanglewood tenor ukulele is priced at 220 dollars at my store whereas it was only priced 150 dollars with free shipping on the melbourne music store listing (the online store also offered free set up!).

Sounds like a good buy all round, Bao - I have played the Concert Tanglewood Union Series & thought it a terrific uke, actually recommending it to many newbies asking for a 'good beginning uke' - as the deal with the hard case for $150 is terrific - specially if delivered from Melbourne as well!!

I am guessing that you wont be sending it back? Good excuse to get a Tenor at some later stage, eh?

Roberta

As good as the concert ukulele is, I will unfortunately be sending it back in exchange for the tenor version. I very much prefer the tenor version of ukuleles rather than concerts. But if I am in need of a new concert version, this will be my first choice to buy !

Shame! I am guessing that they will have to pay for the return freight - or maybe they could give you a real good discount to be tempted to keep it??? It could be the way of getting a good quality cheap uke!? Got a birthday coming up? Get the family to contribute towards the discounted price?

cheerio

Roberta

Well this was actually suppose to be a gift for a friend to get him into playing the uke (and if he doesn't want it, then i would keep it ahah). I do hope that they pay for the return price because I waste my last penny for the money to buy this for my friend.

Seriously - it is THEIR responsibility to pay for the return freight, as it was their mistake! THere should be no issue with that at all. WHen they deliver the Tenor uke, the courier company will most likely have the paperwork to pick up the Concert uke at the same time.

Make sure that you clear that up with them before the new one is delivered - think about it - if they give you a good enough discount to keep the concert uke, you could still flog it as 'new' for the original $150 anyway! So, you could end up with some spare $$ in your pocket! Win! Win!

cheerio

Roberta

Ahaha sounds like a good plan Roberta. I'll think about it. Thank you for the suggestion

I hope your local store can stay in business. Seventy bucks would have saved you the trouble of buying and returning, waiting (twice), buying an instrument you couldn't try first , and might help keep one of your neighbors employed.
Hope the tenor is as nice as the concert. Would be interesting to find out what you do if it isn't.

I would have bought from the local store for sure if I had the 70 on me but I had to use it for other things unfortunately. Ah well. I'm sure the tenor will be just as good because the set up they did for the concert was amazing already.