How To Devalue Your Line Of Instruments...Collings ukes at NAMM 2012

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I'm still shaking my head after watching this...



please don't let this put you off these makers. I've owned a couple of Collings ukes and, tonally and aesthetically they are amazing. I'm just dumbfounded at why Collings would get somebody to demo such a valuable instrument who can't actually do it justice?

Aldrine was very diplomatic off course, but the bitter aftertaste that really lingers here, is, if they have a demo guy showcasing 2000 dollar instruments who can't actually play, what is that saying about how seriously Collings are taking the ukulele as an inherently worthwhile and valuable instrument as opposed to just another bandwagon to have jumped on to up the profit margin???
 
Aldrine should be congratulated for being able to say "beautiful" with a straight face after that guy "played" the ukes.

That is pretty sad. I know Collings has a great rep in guitars and mandolins, but that guy...well...I'll be polite and say maybe it was a bad day...a really, really bad day. LOL

John
 
bad day alright brother. That was a 'demo'?...whew...sorry for the rant folks...starting to calm down a bit now but really, it's just the lonely cry of a frustrated Collings owner. I never had posted a 'dislike' on youtube before and never thought I would, but after a few hundred likes, that pushed me over the edge :eek:
 
eugene ukulele said:
Aldrine was very diplomatic off course, but the bitter aftertaste that really lingers here, is, if they have a demo guy showcasing 2000 dollar instruments who can't actually play, what is that saying about how seriously Collings are taking the ukulele as an inherently worthwhile and valuable instrument as opposed to just another bandwagon to have jumped on to up the profit margin???
Click to expand...

I imagine they must be taking it rather seriously, considering they're making two thousand dollar ukuleles, as opposed to twenty dollar ukuleles. If you want to up the profit margin, I don't think as a general rule you make ukes your average ukulele joe off the street can't actually afford. But then again, I know nothing about economics, so don't quote me on that.
 
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eugene ukulele said:
I'm just dumbfounded at why Collings would get somebody to demo such a valuable instrument who can't actually do it justice?

Aldrine was very diplomatic off course, but the bitter aftertaste that really lingers here, is, if they have a demo guy showcasing 2000 dollar instruments who can't actually play, what is that saying about how seriously Collings are taking the ukulele as an inherently worthwhile and valuable instrument as opposed to just another bandwagon to have jumped on to up the profit margin???
Click to expand...
My take... the guy is a Collings employee. They primarily make guitars and mandolins, and probably not every employee can be expected to play uke with a lot of expertise beyond a few chords/strums.

Likely not every exhibitor there could afford to hire an outstanding uke player to demo their instruments when uke is only one of the lines they make. I remember when one vendor inquired here last year and hired Matt Dahlberg for their NAMM show. Then there's Ken Middleton for Ohana (even if he was unable to attend this year).

If I had been the Collings employee being interviewed and Aldrine asked to hear how it sounded, I would have happily said, "Hey, I'll hold the mic and let you play it, okay?" Or maybe he really didn't know who Aldrine was and what a fantastic player he is, thinking he's just some reporter from some ukulele site.

At any rate, I thought Aldrine handled the whole thing very graciously. :)
 
Google search ---- Bruce VanWart who is in this video was one of B Collings' first employees and has been assoc with Collings since 1989. Apparently chooses the woods used in the guitars and ukuleles
 
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itsme said:
My take... the guy is a Collings employee. They primarily make guitars and mandolins, and probably not every employee can be expected to play uke with a lot of expertise beyond a few chords/strums.

Likely not every exhibitor there could afford to hire an outstanding uke player to demo their instruments when uke is only one of the lines they make. I remember when one vendor inquired here last year and hired Matt Dahlberg for their NAMM show. Then there's Ken Middleton for Ohana (even if he was unable to attend this year).

If I had been the Collings employee being interviewed and Aldrine asked to hear how it sounded, I would have happily said, "Hey, I'll hold the mic and let you play it, okay?" Or maybe he really didn't know who Aldrine was and what a fantastic player he is, thinking he's just some reporter from some ukulele site.

At any rate, I thought Aldrine handled the whole thing very graciously. :)
Click to expand...

What she said.
 
Agreed, Aldrine is one really sweet guy. I try to keep in mind that some of these luthiers are shut in a small dusty room all day, thinking about nothing but wood, glue, stain, and tools. They are creators and may not know, or care less who Aldrine, or Ken, or Jake, or James, or Lil' Rev are... but, I think they should be educated... it can only help the trade. He did a pretty good job of making that wonderful ukulele sound like a plastic piece of crap...
 
Well, that was painful. I've played a few Collings ukuleles. I thought they were amazing. The video is an awful representation.
 
austin1 said:
I imagine they must be taking it rather seriously, considering they're making two thousand dollar ukuleles, as opposed to twenty dollar ukuleles. If you want to up the profit margin, I don't think as a general rule you make ukes your average ukulele joe off the street can't actually afford. But then again, I know nothing about economics, so don't quote me on that.
Click to expand...

I'm with you totally. Oh, and I know nothing of economics either. But these guys are an established boutique, high end guitar company and all I can add is that their custom ukuleles sell immediately they are produced and oftentimes sell before they're even finished. Demand for Collings ukes exceeds production speed at the moment. The market, as we all know, is widening at a rapid rate.

Guess the point I was trying to make was that, yeah, of course they take the business side seriously - they have more demand for their products (ukuleles) than they can meet. But when you get to the instrument show that is the most publicly exposed on the planet and they get a guy demoing their new ukes who can't even play, one questions the 'heart' behind it - if there is any at all. I mean, is there a genuine passion for the uke at Collings or are they firmly guitar heads who still look upon the uke as a bit of a joke.

Anyway, I'm rambling and probably too sensitive here...just had to give vent to my spleen after watching that embarrassing showcase of what are really wonderful instruments. Like always, I think I'm overthinking it maybe...but still interested to hear what others think.
 
pcspud said:
Google search ---- Bruce VanWart who is in this video was one of B Collings' first employees and has been assoc with Collings since 1989. Apparently chooses the woods used in the guitars and ukuleles
Click to expand...
Okay, that basically just reinforces what I was thinking... he's not an uke player. But he doesn't have to be, anymore than the guy that designs and tunes high performance racing engines has to be able to drive a race car. :)
 
itsme said:
My take... the guy is a Collings employee. They primarily make guitars and mandolins, and probably not every employee can be expected to play uke with a lot of expertise beyond a few chords/strums.

Likely not every exhibitor there could afford to hire an outstanding uke player to demo their instruments when uke is only one of the lines they make. I remember when one vendor inquired here last year and hired Matt Dahlberg for their NAMM show. Then there's Ken Middleton for Ohana (even if he was unable to attend this year).

If I had been the Collings employee being interviewed and Aldrine asked to hear how it sounded, I would have happily said, "Hey, I'll hold the mic and let you play it, okay?" Or maybe he really didn't know who Aldrine was and what a fantastic player he is, thinking he's just some reporter from some ukulele site.

At any rate, I thought Aldrine handled the whole thing very graciously. :)
Click to expand...

itsme...totally agree with everything you said. And you said it very well. Aldrine was outstanding as ever.

Given demand exceeds supply with Collings custom ukes, they perhaps felt not the need to have a player there to demo for them
 
itsme said:
Okay, that basically just reinforces what I was thinking... he's not an uke player. But he doesn't have to be, anymore than the guy that designs and tunes high performance racing engines has to be able to drive a race car. :)
Click to expand...

but don't you agree that it's a bad look? I'd want a driver demoing a car I was going to buy, to get an idea of how it runs, not someone who doesn't even have 'L' plates he he :)
 
Im a little surprised but not quite so offended The fellow was probably just working his shift at the booth (the show lasts four days) when Aldrine happened along with a camera and microphone. He's clearly not a salesman or schooled in marketing. If he was he would have found out Aldrine is a star in the ukulele world and would have tried to get Aldrine to endorse their new ukulele line.

Since he's a long time employee, I imagine that he plays a guitar pretty well so he just grabbed a guitar 'F' chord and moved up the neck...strum, strum,

Collings main business is guitars and this fellow is clearly a guitar guy rather than a uke guy.
 
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It's doubtless embarassing for Collings, and for the poor employee. I suspect this guy is more craftsman than musician and maybe Aldrine managed to come around when the rest of the Collings crew was off to lunch. I hope so, anyway. ;)

My favorite guitar store where I used to live had this guy who was an amazing setup tech on acoustic guitars - but he wasn't a musician! He'd learned to play just enough to make sure his setups were good and to do simple instrument demos for customers if he happened to be in the shop alone - but he didn't even pretend to play. I kind of got that impression from this guy in the video. He didn't really even hold the instrument the way even a real guitar player, let alone uke player, would. He also didn't seem to notice that the noise he was making was pretty awful - so I suspect he's probably just a talented woodworker who got stuck manning the booth while others were off having lunch or other fun. LOL

Still pretty dumb of Collings, but as others have mentioned, they're selling instruments faster than they can make them so they probably don't see it that way.

John
 
I, for one, have no problems with any of this. Especially if it "devalues" their ukes to somewhere closer to where I can afford them. Though, given how great they are, I doubt that this will affect their prices very much.
 
OldePhart said:
It's doubtless embarassing for Collings, and for the poor employee. I suspect this guy is more craftsman than musician and maybe Aldrine managed to come around when the rest of the Collings crew was off to lunch. I hope so, anyway. ;)

Still pretty dumb of Collings, but as others have mentioned, they're selling instruments faster than they can make them so they probably don't see it that way.

John
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not so John...Bruce does these demos of Collings ukes every year at NAMM!!! I felt the same when I watched last years as well...

like you guys said, he's a guitar tech and knows nothing of ukes apparently...just makes it all the weirder to me.. why? Why? Why?...... :confused:
 
eugene ukulele said:
Guess the point I was trying to make was that, yeah, of course they take the business side seriously - they have more demand for their products (ukuleles) than they can meet. But when you get to the instrument show that is the most publicly exposed on the planet and they get a guy demoing their new ukes who can't even play, one questions the 'heart' behind it - if there is any at all. I mean, is there a genuine passion for the uke at Collings...
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This is what I thought when I watched these videos as UU released them last week. One can only hope this was unfortunate timing and that they actually do have staff who could have demoed the uke properly. Maybe they were on break at the time Aldrine came around? [Edit: just saw Jon's comment about the same guy at the booth last year. Not good.]

But since I'm not a guitar fan who has long-held respect for some of these famous guitar companies now building ukes, my general reaction is that I'd rather buy ukes from people with more passion for the uke and a better connection with the uke community.

I wish the guitar companies all the best in growing the uke community by selling their ukes to guitar players, but I personally will stick to buying from builders focused on the ukulele. It's not like we lack choices.
 
laundromatt said:
I, for one, have no problems with any of this. Especially if it "devalues" their ukes to somewhere closer to where I can afford them. Though, given how great they are, I doubt that this will affect their prices very much.
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ha! agreed Matt. Thread is poorly titled. Of course there's no actual 'devaluing' going on...but maybe the thread could have more accurately been titled:
"How To Make a $2000 uke sound like a $20 uke" or something... :p
 
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