UAS - how to balance enjoyment and guilt.

my little Ohana cost what you could easily spend one night out in London - restaurant meal followed by a couple of tickets to a show ...

I have friends who do that at least once a month - cool, they have the money. I don't think they sit around feeling guilty about it tho :)
 
The problem depends on your priorities.

Do you like collecting ukes or playing? That's really the first question that you need to ask yourself.

If you want to collect instruments then keep buying if you have the means. If your desire is to play, pick one or two and play them everyday and stop looking for new ones.

One of the best things I did for UAS was to play the uke I had for a year. I told myself if I still wanted another uke after playing it for a year, then I would buy one. There's a comfortableness that you get when you play the same instrument.


I've noticed that when I'm looking for guitars or ukuleles, I'm not playing. I try to stay off of UU but still enjoy reading the posts. But the time spent on here would be better used to practice my instrument.
 
The problem depends on your priorities. Do you like collecting ukes or playing? That's really the first question that you need to ask yourself. If you want to collect instruments then keep buying if you have the means. If your desire is to play, pick one or two and play them everyday and stop looking for new ones. One of the best things I did for UAS was to play the uke I had for a year. I told myself if I still wanted another uke after playing it for a year, then I would buy one. There's a comfortableness that you get when you play the same instrument. I've noticed that when I'm looking for guitars or ukuleles, I'm not playing. I try to stay off of UU but still enjoy reading the posts. But the time spent on here would be better used to practice my instrument.

I like collecting, playing and surfing UU. I collect all the time, I play my bass ukes everyday and my ukes a couple days a week (because I'm focussed on bass for the uke group to which I belong), I'm on UU all the time. Which says you can do it all if that's your inclination, no need to hold back on any. The time I spend on each is enjoyable and fulfilling and I don't feel I'm neglecting any.
 
There's a comfortableness that you get when you play the same instrument.

This is a lot of merit in that statement. For 8 years I had three ukuleles. Over the past year or so I have picked up a few more. One pretty expensive and the rest are 3 string.

But if I had to play like my life depended on it, it would be the tenor I got in 2007 and the one I still play the most. As odd as it sounds, it is almost like a trusted friend.

John
 
There's a lot of wisdom here.

Some people are collectors so they collect, and some people are intensely ccurious and like to go deep into things that spark a passion, and figure it all out. I did that with a lot of things in my life, I like scratching the itch of my curiosity. I also have been a fine artist, both a painter and sculptor, so instuments are also functional art to me. I was later a dealer in antiques, vintage images, and other memorabilia (which I have since let go), so I have the collector mentality too. It resulted in a ton of fun, since for many years I was tied down by my jobs and struggle for consistent income, but I never bought anything when I didn't have a good surplus of funds in the bank, like 5-6 months rent, etc.

Currently I have had a change in life circumstances and I could now afford a Moore Bettah, but I can't get on the list. But, now, I don't really want one! :rolleyes: I think they're stunning, but I have a closet full of ukes and I don't need them all, and I'm not focusing on them at the moment, I am loving my 24" scale parlor guitars. I have the ukes balanced in between and on top of guitars in that small closet and I realized it's time to move a bunch of them along too. I really like all of the ones I have but don't need them. I don't want my stuff to own me. Now that I have even more stuff that was dumped in my lap to disperse, it's going to be a full time job for awhile on top of my other job, but I want to slim down and declutter my life, and don't want to leave a mess behind for someone else to deal with if I expire suddenly. If I had a bigger house than 700sf it would be way easier!

I don't regret too many of my purchases, only the ones that had issues that were not disclosed by online sellers. I have pretty much bought 95% used, and I move them along either mostly breaking even and sometimes getting a profit from fixing them up, because I enjoy doing that too, or not losing much and sometimes giving them away. So other than taking up space in a small house, it ceased being a problem once my spouse understood it was like his model cars (WHICH COVER EVERY FLAT SURFACE!). So, truce.

We don't go out to eat, we don't travel, my car is a 2002 and I like it fine, we go to museums and ride bikes at the beach and enjoy our yard. Life is good. It's just priorities for what brings us joy. I figure as long as I'm not spending my retirement, have a cushion for unexpected expenses, and am willing to shuffle some if necessary, and am honest with myself, I think it's a healthy hobby. I know I love to look at guitars, I've learned a ton, I'm making a tiny bit of progress through my arthritis, and when I start looking thinking of buying, I remind myself I basically have a small shop in my closet (and a few cases stacked around), so I go pick up a different one I haven't played for awhile. I played two steel stringed parlors back to back a couple of days ago, an old dinged up original P-01 Larrivee that just knocked my socks off since the last time I had it out and went "Eh", and an Alvarez Masterworks all solid 'hog. They were both around $500 used and they both sounded remarkable. The weather must be to their liking! So I'm really blessed to have two great guitars (I have more, but those two are enough, the rest are gravy).

I think when it stops being a thing of joy and we aren't playing, practicing, learning and growing, then maybe it's become something else.
 
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I have no guilt over my ukes, but perhaps a little over money spent to build my latest one (tools)...
 
Interesting thread, because it looks to me like all this guilt is about money. I like the justifications by the way. I wonder if money wasn't an issue, would some people just buy and buy and buy ukuleles all day every day?
 
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Interesting thread, because it looks to me like all this guilt is about money. I like the justifications by the way. I wonder if money wasn't an issue, would some people just buy and buy and buy ukuleles all day every day?

I think if there was an underlying addictive process going on, possibly, but personally I think it would be boring to buy a uke every day, even one a month. If money and storage was not an issue I would in the past maybe buy one every few months. I would also be selling some though. Once I got past sentimentality, it was just about experiencing and refining.
 
I think the urge to shop for the pleasure of shopping varies hugely from person to person. I've often wondered if I won the lottery would buying anything be that much fun? (But I don't worry too much - I'd figure it out ;)

I personally believe its important to first - provide for yourself and your family, and that includes savings, rainy day money, call it what you will.

Some form of charitable giving, of your choice.

What money you have left over - as long as legally and morally acceptable, that's your call.

If you collect gold coins, travel the world every summer, buy ukes - who cares? If the two above are fulfilled, I don't think anyone has the right to accuse you.

Its just balance.

If you think you are buying too much - ask yourself why? Are you leaving yourself short? Or is there some other issue, like did you grow up in an environment where you were taught you didn't deserve nice stuff?

Just MO - worth what you pay for it :)
 
switch over to ukulele book acquisition and use the time playing through them :p

Actually i did something bad and switched over to more expensive instruments.

started some years back with a xaphoon and now I find I own an alto and a tenor sax.

Honestly tho I'm happy with the 2 saxes I have (both of them used, one of the was someone's gigging sax for 15 years until he recently upgraded). The cost starts jumping when you mess with different mouthpieces and reeds.
 
I think the fun for me comes from what you learn by doing the homework. I was reading a guitar building website recently (while doing some research on tenor guitars - I was considering one as a baritone alternate) and he made an interesting comment on building a loud instrument.

It went something like "there is a lot of discussion about how tone quality is more important that volume. This is not true because you want an instrument that is responsive - and it can't be responsive if the dynamic range is stuck on quiet". I think this is very important - that is what makes my Clara so incredible to play.
 
First:
Guilt is a useless emotion, stemming from some BS idea that we don't deserve what we have, or what we want. Guilt is always about the past. If we let go of the past, the guilt is easy to remove.
So much for philosophy. You probably don't really feel guilt at all, just a little buyer's remorse.

I only play two of the ukes we have (8). And I have no guilt at all about that. I have remorse about one of them, because the neck warped and it isn't worth tearing into. I think I'll hang it, cause it's pretty.

I think I can justify every penny I've spent on ukes, because I WANTED THEM. And I played them all. And I like tweaking them.. I think I'm done buying, because the one uke I play the most, I don't wanna put down. It has turned into my dream uke, and it cost me half what I thought it would, so no remorse there at all.

I do have buyer's remorse about the damn hammer dulcimer I bought two years ago, and still cannot play a scale on it. I want to sell it or give it away, or make a mini table out of it. Geez.
 
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