Visited Island Bazaar ukulele shop in Huntington Beach today.

I finally got to driving down to Huntington Beach today to visit the Island Bazaar ukulele shop. A trek of about an hour each way from near the Beverly Center in LA.

I would guess that it might be the best stocked store in Southern California (or even the entire state) for ukulele related items (Hawaiian shirts too). I met George, who was very nice, and receptive. I was looking for an extra padded tenor gig bag, but they were out of stock. They did have a very nice dual carry bag, though I have no need for that.

To make my trip worthwhile, I bought strings, a cheap harmonica, a couple of straps, a couple of humidifiers, a music stand uke hanger and also Christmas, Beatles and Classic Rock song books (for which George gave me a nice discount). My UAAS (ukulele accessory acquisition syndrome) is still going strong, but UAS did not get me... this time.

It will probably be a long while before I take that trek again, but if anyone lives in that area, it's well worth a visit.

Island bazaar is a great place to visit. I drop in quarterly or so to check out the revolving inventory. Shirley has a great crew there and selection (in this area anyway) is outstanding. I somehow always walk out of there with something in my hand...

Thanks for the review! I moved to South County a couple of months ago and have yet to make it to Island Bazaar. But now I really want to go peep it out!

I'll have to check it out some time...

Ha ha, guess where I went over lunch today? the power of suggestion!

I enjoyed my visit... they're really friendly and enthusiastic, and I was impressed with their book selection in particular. I got a finger style book to work on and they gave me an unprompted discount. Good times!

This is a great shop! I visited just a few months ago and met George as well. Awesome selection!

If you're ever in San Diego I also really liked the selection of ukes and Hawaii-items at MOTU Hawaii in Pacific Beach!

Island Bazaar is a great store! First time I went there was about 4 years ago. My jaw dropped at all the stuff they had. I live in Minnesota -- we don't have ukulele stores like that. This summer I got to stop in for a few minutes before heading to the airport. I was amazed at how much damage I could do with my credit card in 10 minutes, and I didn't even buy an ukulele. I think I'm glad I don't live near it, although they have lots of jams, which would be fun.

I am glad you had a great experience there!

I was fortunate enough to visit the store during a roadtrip in the US.
It was the first time ever, I came to a place where I could actually talk ukulele-related stuff with other people.
In Denmark, no one - not even the musicstores, takes the ukulele seriously or knows anything about it, so it was quite an experience.
I bought my Kanile'a there and we had a great talk about both ukuleles, but also travel experiences and so on.
When I told them we had no ukulele stores in Denmark they gave us free T-shorts to brand the ukulele here back home

I can't recommend the store enough!