Advice needed. Uke for school

billcarr

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 4, 2013
Messages
91
Reaction score
0
Location
Norway
Need some advice. My better half has convinced the school, where she works as a teacher, to use ukulele for music lessons. Younger students from 7 -10 years. As in most schools here in Norway they uses block recorders..totally unispiring both for teacher and student.

They have a budget of max $50 per uke and they need 30 ukes in total. The $1500 total must include shipping. What you get for $50 here in Norway is a plastic toy like uke so we are looking at importing from oversees.

Any tip son what, were to buy would be most appreciated.

Bill
 
You need to work out what the import duty and work back to a base cost for the uke.
Being part of the European Free Trade Area, I'm not sure if import duty would need to be paid.
Have you got any distributors in Norway, maybe they could cut a deal for you, or have stock they want to move?
H
 
Kala Makala looks like an option. About $45 from a local agent. What would be best or younger kids? Soprano or concert?

Biill
 
get them all Makala Dolphins an assortment of bright colours and very good instruments for the price, also buy them from within Europe and only pay P+P no Tax and if you are buying in bulk you may be able to cut a deal
 
The Makala MK-S is a little less expensive, it sounds a little better, and a collection of them won't ever cause any resentment/disagreement over who gets "the pink one".

Either way, MK-S or Dolphin, Makala makes the most dependable inexpensive ukes IMHO.
 
I'd agree with the guys above, you won't do much better than the Makalas for your budget. They can be had for around £30 here in the UK (approx 35 euro's) and I'm willing to bet that you could get a much better deal than that for buying bulk, maybe even free shipping to Norway. All inside the EU so no import/export duty to pay either, nice and simple.
Again, if your local agent can do them for $45 I'll bet you could get a good discount for buying 30 of them. Talk to them, be cheeky, play on the local community/school aspect, the worst they can do is say no!
 
Need some advice. My better half has convinced the school, where she works as a teacher, to use ukulele for music lessons. Younger students from 7 -10 years. As in most schools here in Norway they uses block recorders..totally unispiring both for teacher and student.

They have a budget of max $50 per uke and they need 30 ukes in total. The $1500 total must include shipping. What you get for $50 here in Norway is a plastic toy like uke so we are looking at importing from oversees.

Any tip son what, were to buy would be most appreciated.

Bill

Bill I've gone through UkeRepublic and mainland for student ukes. What I would recommend is having the students contribute to the uke fund ( say $30) and you guys cover the rest with the budget. I discovered that when the kids buy the ukes themselves they take better care. Unless these ukes aren't going home with the kids.
 
Bruko is in Germany, not far from Norway, and both countries are in the EU...............

Norway is not an EU member. There is a 25% tax on all items imported so it looks like I need to find a domestic supply. Makala dolfin sounds like decent choice.

Bill
 
Children can be discerning too!

The sample I'm basing my biased to heck and back opinion on is small, and it comes from a parent, not teacher perspective.
The uke -must- play. We forget children have smaller, weaker fingers than adults. Whilst I'd be quite happy being presented with a box of ukes to set up ( and I actually really enjoy setting guitars and ukes up. Go figure. ), you can't expect a child to overcome poor action and stiff strings. Can you set up a classroom full of ukes?, restring them if they come strung with a combination of meat and wire?.

Do you have a distributor you could make contact with?. For example, if I were to be undertaking such a task, I'd be sending an email to the likes of John Hornby-Skewes ( U.K distributor ) et al to see what sort of deal they would do me. No affiliation, JHS were the first that came to mind.
Another route would be to contact the manufacturers directly or via a trade front end such as Alibaba. Again, no affiliation but the first name that sprang to mind.
Do you have a national chain of shops that could, with some persuasion, donate one for each two you purchase?.
Good luck with your venture. I applaud your undertaking because I remember the abysmal excuses that were my music lessons in school.
 
http://lanikaiukes.com/laniblog/distributors/

Lanikai has a distributor in Norway that you might contact. They're good ukuleles and likely will have a discount for bulk purchase, particularly if you are willing to take any overstock or seconds, Bill.
 
Learn to do simple set-up work (adjust the string heights and compensation). Some of those cheap ukes will need adjustment. People on UU will help.
 
I'm working on something similar for a school in Salt Lake City. Here's the thread
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?82165-Am-I-crazy I'm going to be documenting how this turns out.

Basically, I was able to find Lanakai seconds for $25 each (including shipping). But - I've also spent $120 on tools to do set-up and I may need more than that. You should also consider how you're going to store the ukes. The cheapest gig bags I've found are about $10 each, hard cases cost more than the ukes, and I'm strongly considering ukulele hangers from swing string instead of cases/gig bags. I think hanging the ukes is a good thing because it avoids the heap of ukes in the corner, but bags/cases will be needed if the kids are going to perform outside of the school.
 
Kala, makers of Makala brand ukuleles also have dealer in Norway. Check here: (You will need to enter a country in the search box) http://kalaukulele.com/dealers.html

I'm with Bill1 on recorder; don't give up on it. Apart from what he says, not all kids will take to ukulele. Some will prefer wind instruments and, for them, the recorder is a good starter. I took to recorder at school and I still play it and love it. The ukulele, for me is a recent discovery.
 
Top Bottom