Who is Bruce Wei ?
Bruce Wei Arts is an instrument maker in Vietnam who has an eBay store. Almost every day I look at tenor ukes on eBay and he has many listed there. I've been contemplating one of those Hawaiian Island sound hole models, but can't justify making the purchase, being that since I started playing bass uke, I've been neglecting my ukes.
Seems like bidding on eBay is a crapshoot. Makes me wonder why people don't stick to reliable vendors and well known brands....what I mean is, I'm not very adventurous with my money.
Reliable and well known for what?
I've played SO many well known brand ukuleles that were reliably overbuilt, dull and had poor intonation.
Sure brucewei's can be a crap shoot but at least your in with a chance of a nice instrument.
Anthony
You may be right.
What I meant by reliable was the hard tedious work of culling out ukes that don't sound good. i.e Mim's Ukes....Uke Republic... HMS....Mainland Ukes....and so forth.
And well known for doing a good setup on each uke before shipping it, and guaranteeing customer satisfaction.
If I were a vendor or manufacturer, no way would I let a dud go out of my shop if I could help it!
Thanks for sharing your experiences and information.
It reinforces my decision to stick with reputable brands and online retailers.
I have a friend who has bought about 60 ukuleles from him, he finds them all to be about the same quality but did have a small issue on two of those on the first fret. (It was easily fixed) other than that he said he's never had a problem with them. (60 is not an over estimate... we counted)
As a note to anyone looking for more information on these: There are several reviews here on UU and other places that read quite similar to the one above. Many mention dead sound, some report cracking over time. Every once in a while, however, someone seems to like the one they've got.
When "Dead Sound" is mentioned what does that mean exactly?
When "Dead Sound" is mentioned what does that mean exactly? Does it mean it doesn't sound as good when played/picked/strumed, you can't hear the notes clearly, or you can't hear the ukulele from 5ft away (10ft away, etc.)?
I'd just like to hear more about why your friend has bought 60 of them! Does they resell them, or do they have another purpose?
Has anyone noticed that the original poster, stophei11 in Kentucky has not replied at all here? I replied to a Marketplace listing for a Fluke by stophei11 and have not heard back. I see the same uke is on auction at eBay. I hope stophei11 is OK.
Generally speaking, ratings of sellers on EBAY primarily apply to the physical condition of products delivered by the seller, rather than to the quality of those products. That is, it is a SELLER-rating system moreso than a product rating system.... ...He complained to Wei, who agreed to take it back and pay for shipping both ways, IF my friend did not leave negative feedback. Which I imagine is how he keeps his ratings so positive.