Interesting conversation about ukes

ichadwick · Mar 15, 2012

Called Broadway Music in Orangeville, today to ask what baritone ukes they have in stock. Was planning a little road trip for the weekend. Broadway has a great selection of every other scale. But baritones? One, and a laminate at that.

The woman I spoke to me told me that of the last 1,200 ukes they had sold, only ONE was a baritone.

Wow, I said. That's odd. I see what seems a resurgence of baritones here on UU and other other ukulele sites. But perhaps that trend hasn't made its way north yet.

Or are Canadians just short-scale aficionados and eschew the longer bari?

sarastro · Mar 15, 2012

I can't speak for Canadians, but it seems to me if you don't stock baritones you won't sell baritones.

itsme · Mar 15, 2012

ichadwick said:
The woman I spoke to me told me that of the last 1,200 ukes they had sold, only ONE was a baritone.

Well, you can't sell them if you don't stock them. Sounds like one of those self-fulfilling prophecies to me.

OldePhart · Mar 15, 2012

I'm with the others on this, in spite of my not being a big baritone fan. Stocking one fairly poor example of a baritone pretty much assures that you won't sell many baritones!

ChrisRCovington · Mar 15, 2012

I agree with sarastro. If they've only sold one baritone (out of the last 1,200) and they only have one baritone in stock (and it's a laminate and not what someone like yourself and I'm sure others want) that means they've only had two in stock out of how many of the other scales? Of course they don't sell many! I think baritones are pretty cool even if I don't own one.

Dan Uke · Mar 15, 2012

ChrisRCovington said:
I think baritones are pretty cool even if I don't own one.

I think that is the point the store is trying to make. I would venture that if we included all the ukes that UU owners have, less than 10% would be baritone. However, I would bet that percentage would be significantly lower for the whole ukulele industry.

Even if the store sold 60 baritones, it would only be 5%. I wouldn't want my money to be tied to inventory that has a long turnover rate. There's always online

You can always buy online.

Nickie · Mar 16, 2012

I think if I sold ukes, I'd stock more than one bari. I can't play them, but I know several people who do. If it weren't for the bari, they wouldn't play. Very loyal bari fans.

ChrisRCovington · Mar 16, 2012

nongdam, that is a good point. It is difficult to hold onto stock that doesn't turn over fast. On the other hand I've faced the same problem Ian has. When you go to most music stores you have one or two baritone ukuleles of low quality to try and you leave feeling underwhelmed with the instruments and another sized ukulele in your shopping bag. I've gone into a store thinking of picking one up, not liking it and leaving with something else. Then I have no money left for that baritone I wanted to try out. Kind of a bad cycle. I am trying to learn guitar so I feel like a baritone could help the transition (help reinforce chord patterns). Such is life.

ukulelepuapua · Mar 16, 2012

Here too is the case- we choose to not to stock as many baritone ukes just like 6, 8, and 12 string ukulele's because its just not the trend at the current time.

stevepetergal · Mar 16, 2012

I hope I don't hurt anyone's feelings. I feel about the Baritone ukulele the way a lot of outsiders do about all ukuleles. I think "What? A Baritone ukulele? Why?" Perhaps it's still a little too small a niche because of people like me.
Mea Culpa.

Interesting conversation about ukes

ichadwick

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sarastro

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itsme

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OldePhart

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ChrisRCovington

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Dan Uke

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Nickie

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ChrisRCovington

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ukulelepuapua

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stevepetergal

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