SweetWaterBlue
Well-known member
As far as people who aren't ukers I meet go, I would say that the most common acknowledgement of famous players is probably still Iz. They don't always get his name right, but they do associate ukes and him.
I don't know why people worry about such whether retailers sell more guitars or ukes.
It is something to talk about. That's all. If we don't talk about stuff, there isn't a forum.I don't either. They're different instruments. Might as well worry about mandolin sales affecting uke sales or saxophone sales affecting flute sales.
....Another good question in my mind, are people who have played a while upgrading to custom ukes now instead of purchasing factory made ukes?......
But a good solid-top ukulele? Kinda rare. If anybody knows a good uke store in the area, let me know.
Another good question in my mind, are people who have played a while upgrading to custom ukes now instead of purchasing factory made ukes?
Done that, been there, and - lesson learned, I'm sticking with factory ukes (specifically Kamaka at present but as always, subject to change!). I didn't really find the custom I once had made to be much of a step up from what I already had. It was really cool to have something made by an individual and to have been involved in the planning process, but in the end I liked my garden-variety factory Kamakas better.
I live in the Chicago area, and the selection available at stores here is paltry, always has been. I've been to several GC's, Sam Ash, some big local guitar/music stores and many smaller stores. The big stores top-out at Lanikai and Kala U-basses. I know of one store that has some Flukes and Fleas. I don't know much about the high-end brands you guys talk about, because I've never seen them. I've seen many dozens of Gibson archtop guitars from the 1940's and 1950's. Probably 100's pre-CBS Fenders. Six figure pianos, new and used, Steinway, Bosendorfer, etc. A Selmer Mark VI for you saxophone players. But a good solid-top ukulele? Kinda rare. If anybody knows a good uke store in the area, let me know.
Digging deeper: the 1.4M acoustic guitars represent about $600M in revenue, while the 900K ukes represent about $65M in revenue. Seems like acoustic guitars provide quite a bit more value to a shop.
they say that 10% of beer drinkers buy 90% of the beer, and that may be true of ukes, too.