Some big box retailers should not be allowed to sell ukes

I don't know if it's the same in the mainland but here in Hawaii Best buy and sears sell ukuleles. My only beef is that when I go into the stores all the ukes have missing and broken strings on display...as well as the. Guitars and the salesman really know zero about them..especially in best buy...in Sears the ukes are in great looking glass display cases but in the electronics dept. again the salesman I talked to couldn't even tune it. What a shame and impression this makes on the first time or new ukes...my 2 cents and counting

MGM said:

I don't know if it's the same in the mainland but here in Hawaii Best buy and sears sell ukuleles. My only beef is that when I go into the stores all the ukes have missing and broken strings on display...as well as the. Guitars and the salesman really know zero about them..especially in best buy...in Sears the ukes are in great looking glass display cases but in the electronics dept. again the salesman I talked to couldn't even tune it. What a shame and impression this makes on the first time or new ukes...my 2 cents and counting

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You think that's bad-- it's the same with electronics sometimes in Best Buy. The salesman does not know the product. And Sears-- forgetaboutit

Mike, I more or less agree. If you by a bike at Walmart and it breaks, you asked for it. Sears introduced a lot of products into this country before anyone else did. My brother shad a Sears motorcyclist, and a BF had a Sears scooter. They ran great.
I wouldn't buy any instrument from anyone but the previous owner, or a bonafide serious dealer that knows her stuff!
A friend bought an ukulele from Best Buy, on a whim, and she is very unhappy with it. It wasn't cheap, and it's not playable.

I generally agree, but my real take is anyone who buys from a Big Box kind of deserves what they get. That my seem harsh, but I just have to wonder sometimes.

Local music shops are all over, and easy enough to find. In fact, I was just at one today that was incredibly cool. Loads of six-strings, but also a lot of folk instruments like banjos, mandolins, some sweet ukes (I swear I saw like three Martins), and things like bouzukis, balalaikas, etc.

The owner was perhaps the most gregarious guy I've met in a long time, and I spent about 90 minutes talking to him about his music theories and new ideas. Fascinating fellow. And dude knows his music/instruments!

So, certainly, anyone who opts to buy at a Big Box over local is getting what they pay for.

That said, Sears did sell Silvertone (I think) which introduced a lot of folks to music, so maybe the Big Boxes aren't all that bad after all ...

Ha Ha Yup Mike...I wouldn't buy malasadas from 7-11 ........

I have seen quite a few cordobas at BB in north carolina and they have three strings at best.

MGM said:

I don't know if it's the same in the mainland but here in Hawaii Best buy and sears sell ukuleles. My only beef is that when I go into the stores all the ukes have missing and broken strings on display...as well as the. Guitars and the salesman really know zero about them..especially in best buy...in Sears the ukes are in great looking glass display cases but in the electronics dept. again the salesman I talked to couldn't even tune it. What a shame and impression this makes on the first time or new ukes...my 2 cents and counting

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Unfortunately I've had a similar experience at the local Guitar Center as well.

mm stan said:

Ha Ha Yup Mike...I wouldn't buy malasadas from 7-11 ........

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Or buy Mexican food from a Chinese take out. I saw burritos and tacos on this Chinese take out places menu and thought....WT?.. just sayin.

Cheers!

I learned my lesson with Best Buy's musical instrument department a few years back. I went back once about a year after I posted and nothing had changed. We have a great Guitar Center in San Marcos, Carvin and Taylor in San Diego and several mom and pop music stores that all provide great customer service and maintain their in store instruments. It's funny how I went out to spend $60 bucks at the Best Buy and ended up spending about a grand at another store on the way back:

http://www.forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Mu...-Best-Buy-in-Murrieta-California/m-p/11206#M4

I encountered a mainland Costco Cordoba uke once, and it was... not pleasant at all. It makes me sad to think that some unsuspecting person might see one of these when they're out stocking up on family packs of toilet paper and cases of hot dogs or whatever, and become inspired to learn to play. Then they bring one of these things home and actually play the thing, and lose interest almost immediately because it sounds so gawd-awful.

PoiDog said:

I generally agree, but my real take is anyone who buys from a Big Box kind of deserves what they get. That my seem harsh, but I just have to wonder sometimes.

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Harsh or not, I agree with you. I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for." Also a big believer in "there's one born every minute." So, I do my homework when I shop, but I think the only homework most people do is math, to see how much they are "saving."

PoiDog said:

Local music shops are all over, and easy enough to find. In fact, I was just at one today that was incredibly cool. Loads of six-strings, but also a lot of folk instruments like banjos, mandolins, some sweet ukes (I swear I saw like three Martins), and things like bouzukis, balalaikas, etc.

The owner was perhaps the most gregarious guy I've met in a long time, and I spent about 90 minutes talking to him about his music theories and new ideas. Fascinating fellow. And dude knows his music/instruments!

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Aw, come on, tell a fellow Southern Californian where you were! Sounds like a cool place

janeray1940 said:

Aw, come on, tell a fellow Southern Californian where you were! Sounds like a cool place

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The place was Marina Music (I think that was the name), on Centinela just north of Culver. Real near where Aloha Market and Mago's Tacos used to be. The store's been there as long as I've been alive, but the current owner, Alex, has been there for about 20 - 25 years or so.

Check the place out. You absolutely won't be sorry. And if you have the time, ask him about his Echometry music theory. It totally blew my mind.

Very very very cool place and cool guy.

PoiDog said:

The place was Marina Music (I think that was the name), on Centinela just north of Culver. Real near where Aloha Market and Mago's Tacos used to be. The store's been there as long as I've been alive, but the current owner, Alex, has been there for about 20 - 25 years or so.

Check the place out. You absolutely won't be sorry. And if you have the time, ask him about his Echometry music theory. It totally blew my mind.

Very very very cool place and cool guy.

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Oh I think I know the place - a bunch of old instruments attached to the facade, including a banjo uke? Never open when I happen to be driving by, sounds like it's worth a stop though. Thanks!

mm stan said:

Ha Ha Yup Mike...I wouldn't buy malasadas from 7-11 ........

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ha ha!
Or like the people who buy malasadas at the Safeway across the street from leonards! Sorry for the off topic post

There's a computer store around here that now has a music department, which means guitars. The Fenders are all well setup, maybe they came like that. I'd prefer to buy from the type of place that looks stuff over before selling it, but music stores are just awful here. The customer is priority 55 and some places pick their prices from the air. Even the hole-in-the-wall shops don't want to know you unless you spend thousands, and even then not-so-much. I know of one music store not like that, but his stock is all cheap import stuff. He does have uke supplies though, so there's that.

I can't imagine working in a big box store hawking ukes, and somebody like Musicguy Mike coming in asking me questions. Whew, talk about pressure! Course, if they know nothing about ukes, they won't know who Mike is anyhow.

that was such an EDIT : Chill out. - seeso comment. 80% of all chinese food, japanes restaurants places nowadays are manned by honest Mexican and other minority workers. i bet you didnt know tha,t gabacho.

blue_knight_usa said:

Or buy Mexican food from a Chinese take out. I saw burritos and tacos on this Chinese take out places menu and thought....WT?.. just sayin.

Cheers!

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You're not going to last long if you keep attacking your fellow members. Please keep it civil. Thanks.

weerpool said:

that was such an edited -seeso comment. 80% of all chinese food, japanes restaurants places nowadays are manned by honest Mexican and other minority workers. i bet you didnt know tha,t gabacho.

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Trolling comment if ever there was one.

janeray1940 said:

Oh I think I know the place - a bunch of old instruments attached to the facade, including a banjo uke? Never open when I happen to be driving by, sounds like it's worth a stop though. Thanks!

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Yep, that's the place. I stumbled in more out of curiosity than anything else, but brother, I'm glad I did.

weerpool said:

that was such an EXPLETIVE DELETED comment. 80% of all chinese food, japanes restaurants places nowadays are manned by honest Mexican and other minority workers. i bet you didnt know tha,t gabacho.

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Okay, I didn't get to see the original comment, but "gabacho"? That actually did make me LOL. As unexpected as if he had written "menso".

So, back to the thread:

Aloha MGM!

Yeah, but there are other shops that are just as bad! I just found a Kala Solid Mahogany (pocket uke) I've been looking for a while on Maui. (Reno Ukefest, 'Stray Cats,' remember?) Anyway, of course, I live on the mainland, so I have to trust and buy....and wait on shipping.

So my uke shows up last week from a shop on Maui.... and the 'E' string tuner is useless. It's too loose, and the screw is TOTALLY SEIZED UP. Any tightening of the tuner to a proper tone and any strumming or plucking immediately send it down, down, down like a trombone. The screw won't tighten, and won't loosen. I've almost blown a blood vessel trying, trust me. So I've got to take it to my local luthier to fix.

That's not all. The nut height is what appears to be perfect, but the saddle is too low. Thus, buzz on almost all frets.

If I had bought from a shop that does 'set up,' I would have avoided all of this. (But, I was looking for a discontinued model, and none of the 'good' shops had any in stock.)

So, yeah, I'm gonna one up you MGM and say that not only Big Box stores shouldn't sell, but music stores shouldn't be allowed to be authorized dealers unless they can do a competent set up. Seriously.

(And ALL of my rant could be avoided completely if Kala had better quality control. I LOVE their instruments, but their final fit/finish and set up are TOTALLY hit-and-miss.)

Anyone from Kala reading this????

I agree, the big box stores should stay away from musical instruments but sometimes even a well known music store isn't much better. I went in a local national chain music store once and was looking at the ukes they had in their acoustic guitar room. I picked up a Cordoba concert and attempted to play it, of course it wasn't anywhere in tune, so as I was tuning it the Salesman walked up and started his pitch, telling me "you just picked up a top of the line premium ukulele". I said "really? you think so?" So I preceded to tell him the error in his ways, that it wasn't a bad uke but far from "premium". I don't think he expected someone with knowledge. He left me alone after that. He sounded more like a used car salesman than a musician.