Janebug
Member
I just recently experienced the excitement and slight anxiety of shopping for the first instrument that I chose for myself. I’ve been learning on a Mahalo beginner’s uke and last month it suffered an accident which, though there was no visible damage, left it sounding not quite the same to my ears. The good news was that my teacher told me I was ready to upgrade. Oh I was psyched! I spent a while researching on this forum and elsewhere, got a bit overwhelmed by all the different threads and opinions, but finally felt prepared to start shopping.
I was thinking of moving from a soprano to a concert, but I had never handled that size before. The one recommendation that seemed universally agreed was that regardless of make, model or price, only I could decide what ukulele sounded and felt the best to me. My teacher advised me to get the best I could afford (about $500, I decided). I had two sources of instruments within about 20 miles – one rather high end shop specializing in stringed instruments, one a more conventional general interest music store which I had not visited before. I also was expecting to see some vendors at the NH Uke Picnic next weekend. Between these 3 sources I was hoping, at the least, to personally try out enough ukes that, if I didn’t buy one (or win one in the picnic raffle!
) I might be able to confidently order from the likes of MIM.
So I went out Saturday to start shopping around in person. The stringed instrument shop was unfortunately out of concerts. “It’s Uke Season,” they explained. But they get frequent trade-in activity so that could change quickly. They did have a number of sopranos and tenors, a majority of them Martins. Though most of them were out of my budget, I tried out each and every one for the experience, including the tenors. Only one of them made my heart beat faster – a funky, beautiful all-plastic vintage Maccaferri Islander from 1953. But I still wanted to shop around. They promised to call me when a concert came in.
Then we drove the other direction to the general music store. The junior salesman who greeted me asked my budget, then seemed taken aback and rather apologetically said that the lines they carried were generally not that pricey. But behind him on the wall I saw a concert uke, so at least I would get to handle one and see how it felt! It was one of a whole line of Amahis that they had. I tried it and actually was liking the fuller sound though I still felt that more shopping was necessary. Then the proprietor himself chimed in and brought out something that he said was a discontinued model that they had had for a long time and he could give me a good price.
It was an Ohana SK-50 WG soprano. It was absolutely gorgeous, in cedar and figured willow, rope rosette, Aquila strings. I strummed it and heard bells. It had a big, shimmering voice, somehow different from everything I had tried out earlier. It was so easy to play. I was transfixed. I listened to the Ohana over and over as the shopkeeper lowered the price two more times. (And I had to wait between blares as elsewhere in the shop someone was testing guitar amplifiers.) “You’ll know when you find it” is what I had seen repeated on the forum. And I knew I had found it. Even though I had been planning to wait till the Uke Picnic to check out more models, even though I had been thinking maybe a concert, I listened to the Ohana and thought, I love this, what more am I hoping for? - and the deal I was being offered didn’t hurt either.
In the end I walked out of the shop with the Ohana plus a hard case for $200 total and a big grin that hasn’t left me, and a song in my heart, the title of this thread, from "Guys and Dolls." Why couldn’t they sell this beautiful ukulele before? Because it was mine I guess.
Here’s what it sounds like when Ken Middleton plays it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K151lMbQMj4
Well, apologies for the long telling, but you folks are the ones I can tell, that I knew would understand.
I was thinking of moving from a soprano to a concert, but I had never handled that size before. The one recommendation that seemed universally agreed was that regardless of make, model or price, only I could decide what ukulele sounded and felt the best to me. My teacher advised me to get the best I could afford (about $500, I decided). I had two sources of instruments within about 20 miles – one rather high end shop specializing in stringed instruments, one a more conventional general interest music store which I had not visited before. I also was expecting to see some vendors at the NH Uke Picnic next weekend. Between these 3 sources I was hoping, at the least, to personally try out enough ukes that, if I didn’t buy one (or win one in the picnic raffle!
) I might be able to confidently order from the likes of MIM.So I went out Saturday to start shopping around in person. The stringed instrument shop was unfortunately out of concerts. “It’s Uke Season,” they explained. But they get frequent trade-in activity so that could change quickly. They did have a number of sopranos and tenors, a majority of them Martins. Though most of them were out of my budget, I tried out each and every one for the experience, including the tenors. Only one of them made my heart beat faster – a funky, beautiful all-plastic vintage Maccaferri Islander from 1953. But I still wanted to shop around. They promised to call me when a concert came in.
Then we drove the other direction to the general music store. The junior salesman who greeted me asked my budget, then seemed taken aback and rather apologetically said that the lines they carried were generally not that pricey. But behind him on the wall I saw a concert uke, so at least I would get to handle one and see how it felt! It was one of a whole line of Amahis that they had. I tried it and actually was liking the fuller sound though I still felt that more shopping was necessary. Then the proprietor himself chimed in and brought out something that he said was a discontinued model that they had had for a long time and he could give me a good price.
It was an Ohana SK-50 WG soprano. It was absolutely gorgeous, in cedar and figured willow, rope rosette, Aquila strings. I strummed it and heard bells. It had a big, shimmering voice, somehow different from everything I had tried out earlier. It was so easy to play. I was transfixed. I listened to the Ohana over and over as the shopkeeper lowered the price two more times. (And I had to wait between blares as elsewhere in the shop someone was testing guitar amplifiers.) “You’ll know when you find it” is what I had seen repeated on the forum. And I knew I had found it. Even though I had been planning to wait till the Uke Picnic to check out more models, even though I had been thinking maybe a concert, I listened to the Ohana and thought, I love this, what more am I hoping for? - and the deal I was being offered didn’t hurt either.
In the end I walked out of the shop with the Ohana plus a hard case for $200 total and a big grin that hasn’t left me, and a song in my heart, the title of this thread, from "Guys and Dolls." Why couldn’t they sell this beautiful ukulele before? Because it was mine I guess.
Here’s what it sounds like when Ken Middleton plays it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K151lMbQMj4
Well, apologies for the long telling, but you folks are the ones I can tell, that I knew would understand.
