OldePhart
Well-known member
FIRST – STRAIGHT OFF THE MARK – I don't want this thread to degenerate into a thread that is bashing (or even praising) any particular builders or even builders in general. Please do NOT:
1) Mention any builder by name - not even to praise them. It's not fair to builders to have their name end up in a Google search associated with a thread about flaws, even if their name was only there because someone was praising their work.
2) Link to any other threads, especially marketplace threads, or to any builder's websites, etc.
3) Post any pictures (many of us can identify a builder's work by even a small part of an instrument).
Again, this thread is about PLAYERS and why we spend our money the way we do!
Okay, with that out of the way, is it just me or does anybody else wonder why so many “luthier-built” ukuleles sell for often princely sums in the marketplace in spite of obvious careless flaws that show up clearly in the pictures? Now, mind, we're not talking about ukes being sold as seconds; I'm the first guy who will snap up a cosmetic blem if it is mentioned and the price is adjusted appropriately! I'm talking about ukuleles with obvious flaws that are not mentioned by the builder.
I've been watching the marketplace for a couple of years and I've seen quite a few of these instruments sell in spite of having unacknowledged problems of the sort that make me wonder what other less obvious problems might be lurking “under the wood.” Most of the issues are probably cosmetic, but when the builder doesn't acknowledge them I have to wonder how careful the builder is in less visible, but more important, areas. Also, we're not just talking about a tiny bubble in a finish or something like that, these are things that are actually “structural” though hopefully not fatally so.
So, what are the kinds of things I'm talking about? Most of them wouldn't affect play and are things like one tuner misaligned from the others; a splintered, uneven, wide, or non-straight heel join that has just been filled with glue and sawdust; binding joins in odd and highly visible places; and, perhaps my favorite only because it seems so ridiculous on otherwise gorgeous ukes, string holes in bridges that just kind of wander across the bridge like the footprints of a drunken sailor. If a builder doesn't care enough to build a bridge-drilling jig, or at least measure accurately, for something so obvious as this I have to wonder how tight the bracing and kerfing that I cant see are, etc.
Also, again, if the blem was acknowledged up front by the builder and the price adjusted, most of these issues wouldn't stop me from buying the uke (assuming the price adjustment was adequate). It's when the builder apparently hasn't even noticed these flaws that I really have to wonder what else might be wrong.
I've also seen a handful of ukes go through the marketplace with issues that pretty much had to affect playability. In one case a neck was obviously set at a slight (rotational) angle, on others there has been one string significantly higher or lower than the others, and several cases of strings spaced quite unevenly.
We're not talking about a single builder, either, though there are a couple that pop to mind that I will never purchase from because I've seen so many examples of unacknowledged and simply careless flaws from their shops. Yet people jump on ukes from those very builders like cats on June bugs!
So, we get back to my question... Why do so many of us act as if such builders are doing us a favor letting us spend several hundred dollars, sometimes over a grand, on instruments built so carelessly? Is paying so much for flawed work cheapening the work of those who are really careful? Or, is paying so much for flawed work inflating the high-end ukulele market? I don't have answers, but the questions are driving me nuts. :biglaugh:
1) Mention any builder by name - not even to praise them. It's not fair to builders to have their name end up in a Google search associated with a thread about flaws, even if their name was only there because someone was praising their work.
2) Link to any other threads, especially marketplace threads, or to any builder's websites, etc.
3) Post any pictures (many of us can identify a builder's work by even a small part of an instrument).
Again, this thread is about PLAYERS and why we spend our money the way we do!
Okay, with that out of the way, is it just me or does anybody else wonder why so many “luthier-built” ukuleles sell for often princely sums in the marketplace in spite of obvious careless flaws that show up clearly in the pictures? Now, mind, we're not talking about ukes being sold as seconds; I'm the first guy who will snap up a cosmetic blem if it is mentioned and the price is adjusted appropriately! I'm talking about ukuleles with obvious flaws that are not mentioned by the builder.
I've been watching the marketplace for a couple of years and I've seen quite a few of these instruments sell in spite of having unacknowledged problems of the sort that make me wonder what other less obvious problems might be lurking “under the wood.” Most of the issues are probably cosmetic, but when the builder doesn't acknowledge them I have to wonder how careful the builder is in less visible, but more important, areas. Also, we're not just talking about a tiny bubble in a finish or something like that, these are things that are actually “structural” though hopefully not fatally so.
So, what are the kinds of things I'm talking about? Most of them wouldn't affect play and are things like one tuner misaligned from the others; a splintered, uneven, wide, or non-straight heel join that has just been filled with glue and sawdust; binding joins in odd and highly visible places; and, perhaps my favorite only because it seems so ridiculous on otherwise gorgeous ukes, string holes in bridges that just kind of wander across the bridge like the footprints of a drunken sailor. If a builder doesn't care enough to build a bridge-drilling jig, or at least measure accurately, for something so obvious as this I have to wonder how tight the bracing and kerfing that I cant see are, etc.
Also, again, if the blem was acknowledged up front by the builder and the price adjusted, most of these issues wouldn't stop me from buying the uke (assuming the price adjustment was adequate). It's when the builder apparently hasn't even noticed these flaws that I really have to wonder what else might be wrong.
I've also seen a handful of ukes go through the marketplace with issues that pretty much had to affect playability. In one case a neck was obviously set at a slight (rotational) angle, on others there has been one string significantly higher or lower than the others, and several cases of strings spaced quite unevenly.
We're not talking about a single builder, either, though there are a couple that pop to mind that I will never purchase from because I've seen so many examples of unacknowledged and simply careless flaws from their shops. Yet people jump on ukes from those very builders like cats on June bugs!
So, we get back to my question... Why do so many of us act as if such builders are doing us a favor letting us spend several hundred dollars, sometimes over a grand, on instruments built so carelessly? Is paying so much for flawed work cheapening the work of those who are really careful? Or, is paying so much for flawed work inflating the high-end ukulele market? I don't have answers, but the questions are driving me nuts. :biglaugh:
). 
