Revisiting your first uke

itsme

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My first uke was a Cordoba mahogany tenor, I won it in a drawing from a guitar store. I have since acquired several (cough! cough!) more ukes.

The Cordoba hasn't seen much action in a long time, so I decided since I could stuff the case in my tote bag, I'd bring it to today's meetup.

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounded and how easy it was to play. And the Worth browns on it were still almost perfectly in tune.

Someone else at the meetup said something about how they could never sell their first uke, and I realized I felt the same way.

There may come a time when I will have to thin the herd, but I don't think I'll ever sell this one. :)
 
Maybe not sell. I would give it away to start someone else on their way. It's a Luna Tattoo.
 
My first ukulele was nothing great. It was a Kohala laminate concert that I bought at Costco. I know now I could have done a lot better for the money, but it was reasonably playable. It had some crappy black nylon strings not it. I haven't played it in a while, maybe I'll get it out and restring it to see what I can get out of it. Might be good to practice setting it up too. It was a nice intro anyway and I have fond memories of it.
 
Mine was a Hawaiian Ukulele Company soprano bought at the Aloha Tower about six years ago. I never play it and the only emotional attachment to it comes from the fact my mom bought it for me. I am keeping it only long enough to give to my niece, but she is only three years old right now.
 
My first ukulele was nothing great. It was a Kohala laminate concert that I bought at Costco. I know now I could have done a lot better for the money, but it was reasonably playable. It had some crappy black nylon strings not it. I haven't played it in a while, maybe I'll get it out and restring it to see what I can get out of it. Might be good to practice setting it up too. It was a nice intro anyway and I have fond memories of it.


Same here, from the Costco in Hawaii Kai four years ago. I put some Aquilas on it which made a big difference. It would probably sound better if I had it set up properly, too. (It's a little bit sharp at the 12th fret). I loan it out to folks, take it to the beach and get sand in it, but I won't part with it unless it breaks.
 
My first uke was a Cordoba mahogany tenor, I won it in a drawing from a guitar store. I have since acquired several (cough! cough!) more ukes.

The Cordoba hasn't seen much action in a long time, so I decided since I could stuff the case in my tote bag, I'd bring it to today's meetup.



I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounded and how easy it was to play. And the Worth browns on it were still almost perfectly in tune.

Someone else at the meetup said something about how they could never sell their first uke, and I realized I felt the same way.

There may come a time when I will have to thin the herd, but I don't think I'll ever sell this one. :)


mine was a samick concert
and I no longer own it it was
a good starter uke though
 
My first ukulele was a blue Mahalo we bought for my youngest son so he wouldn't destroy my older son's little guitar. I recuperated from the flu for a week with this instrument. A week on the couch with an out of tune ukulele. Within a month or so, I was shopping online to get an instrument for myself. While I shopped and waited, put some strings on it (D'Addarios, I think), took a butter knife to the nut and changed the saddle out for a whittled chopstick to lower the insanely high action. I want to take it in for a "real" setup and see the look on the guy's face when he gets a load of my handiwork.
 
I'm not very sentimental about my beginner uke. I keep it as a loaner and will give it away one day when someone in need comes along. I really don't think it sounds very good anymore.
 
I hate my first uke. Oscar Schmidt concert plywood piece of junk. Neck terrible, setup terrible, intonation terrible, tone terrible. You could play it at the 5th fret and it was already falling out of tune. An all-together horrible experience. It took me over a year to get into ukulele playing because that instrument was so uninspiring (and painful) to play.

I would never sell it or give it away, because I would never wish that pain on another person. It has been sitting in my closet in a case for about 5 years, it's probably all dried out by now.
 
Mine is a Hilo soprano that I bought in a local music store. I learned all the beginner chords on it, and didn't realize how bad the intonation was. I loved it.

I got the bright idea to paint it orange and put a decal of a palm tree on it. But I really suck at things like that, and the result was disastrous... the paint ran and the decal went on crooked and bubbly. I was REALLY sad; as if I had killed it. My husband felt sorry for me, and when I was out one evening he stripped the paint and the original finish off of it and sanded it down; then he did a lovely job of refinishing it.

I could never let it go. The intonation is still terrible, but it doesn't matter how it stacks up against my other ukes. It's a keeper.
 
Mine was a Mahalo painted cheapie! I passed it on to a friend
when I got a better uke,but....I still own one of the Mahalo
cheapies,which I use for taking to places I would not want to
risk my decent instruments in;like camping etc!
 
My first uke was my husband's first uke, a Lanikai lu21b, (a humble laminate baritone). I bought in a local music shop about 15 yrs ago. It was all they carried at the time(ukulele not being very popular then). I thought it would be a convenient "little guitar" for him to noodle around with. Well, six kids and busy lives, it just got played when the occasional whim struck. It stood leaning in a corner or in the closet with no case for years. It really took a licking and kept on ticking though, because a few years ago, when I retired, I thought "what the heck, we still have this thing? I'm gonna learn how to play it" ...and I did! Still love that uke. Four of my six kids now play ukulele and my son really wanted my old uke when I upgraded. I still see it regularly when I jam with him.
 
My first uke is my pre-war Martin O. My Dad had just finished building a house and I suspect he didn't have much money, so he gave me his uke on my 10th birthday. I'll be 74 in September. Goes to savagehenry when I kick the bucket.
 
My first uke was a Lanikai Concert that was purchased on Kijiji, a Canadian online garage sale site. It was a pretty little uke and sounded very nice when strung with Worth browns. I sold it when I purchased my Pono tenor last February.

Regards,
Bill
 
I still have my first and do play it fairly regularly, although I have acquired quite a few others over the years. It's a Makala tenor I got from MGM along with a couple of Dolphins for my grandkids. I'm still rather amazed at Mikes customer service when I was new at the instrument and he called me back to answer my questions even though the ukes I was looking at were probably the cheapest he carried, and I'm sure he hardly made a profit on them. I don't think I could ever sell it, it and my LU-21C are the ones I throw in the trailer for camping.
 
First one was a Fluke and I still have it. I bought it about 15 years ago in a Waterbury Conn. store that only sells merchandise made in Conn. At the time the Flukes and Fleas were made in New Hartford, Conn. I play it once in a while and it still sounds good. I would never sell it but like many have mentioned here, I would give it to someone who was truly interested.
 
The first uke I had that "took" was a Lanikai 6 string tenor mahogany laminate. The first step of UAS found me buying a backup for that uke, since I loved it so much. I got a used Lanikai 6-string tenor, but a cutaway in koa which, within about a week, completely supplanted my first one, based on action and tone.

I felt like I didn't want to get rid of my original 6-string for sentimental reasons. Then I got Jake's autograph on the front and Frank Orrall of Poi Dog Pondering autographed a picture he drew on the back, and now I can't ever part with it.
 
Hello greenie44,
"" The first step of UAS found me buying a backup for that uke, since I loved it so much.""
That made me chuckle, a guy can't have too many backups.
Regards
Jim
 
My first ukulele is the yellow one in my avatar. A First Act Discovery for $15 from T.J. Maxx. Bought a few days before Christmas 2013 as a back up gift for a grandkid in case their online gift did not come in time. It did come in time.

I was alone on Christmas Eve and decided to pull it out of the box. I was surprised at the geared tuners. Pulled up chord websites until I found one this one http://www.ukuleletricks.com/11-must-know-ukulele-chords-for-beginners/ and learned nine of the chords that night. I was playing the ukulele the next day -Christmas Day - for family. It was basic stuff, but still songs!

I think that is the beauty of the ukulele experience - to go from zero to passable in a short time, and then the rest of your lifetime is the joy of discovering how wonderful a ukulele can be.
 
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