I missed this thread earlier. I played a few of the Farida sopranos at Elderly during Mighty Uke Day last year. I liked the Faridas right well. Light build, resonant, a pleasure to play. Very reminiscent of vintage mahogany ukes. I almost brought one home and it's still calling me: https://www.elderly.com/collections/category_ukuleles/products/farida-kas-3-nc-soprano-ukulele
Dang, now I'm really wanting that...
Yes, I have. They've made pickups for years in Canada. I traded several e-mails with Les Schatten back in the day. Nice guy with good products at reasonable prices. Not sure if he's still around or what has happened with the company over the years. I just found the website and it looks like a lot has been upgraded/updated etc. I used to have one of their Dualie pickups that I used on various instruments and it was as good as any other of the type I've ever owned.Came with a Schatten brand UST pickup installed. Anyone heard of those? I haven't.
Here's a few chords on the new (to me) Farida. The friction tuners were tolerable, but barely, so I installed Gotoh UPTs. What a difference, so smooth and reliable. This one has quickly become my favorite tenor, better than the Kala or Cordoba I have.
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By God! That's the first time I've heard Ukulele used to accompany an Operatic Soprano! And, I think that's Italian opera, not Chinese. Unfortunately, I'm not an opera buff, and can't identify the particular aria.
To call Elderly an "online retailer" is simply not true and not fair. Elderly Instruments is a brick and mortar store that has been in business since 1972 in Lansing Michigan ( it is literally an old brick building that is very cool and old school ). Yes, they have an online presence just as every business these days does (if a business does not they are foolish). I have personally walked in to Elderly many times and demoed dozens of musical instruments of all kinds. They have a staff of experienced musicians and luthiers on the sales floor who are happy to talk to you and give you personal service.I generally shy away from buying house branded instruments, & from buying any instrument sold by a sole retailer. Big box stores, sole distributorships, & house brands are eating away at local music stores & my friends who work & play instruments there.
Besides ukuleles, my other favorite pass-time is photography. Here on Oahu, ALL of my favorite camera stores are gone. Kaput! My favorite music store, Easy Music, has closed all of its outlets except one, & who knows how long that one will hold out against competition from online retailers like Elderly.
At my favorite Easy Music outlet, before it closed, people would come there to play the guitars & ukuleles etc, take the time of sales people to demo instruments & answer questions, find one they liked, make a note of the make & model, then go buy it online.
Yeah, I know .... it's progress. IMO, it's retrograde progress. Eventually, I suppose, local retail stores will mostly disappear & the ones that remain will be staffed by robots. Live customers will then be free to always stay at home, playing with their ... equipment. I'm happy to be too old to stick around & watch it all happen. Farida? No -- not until Easy Music stocks it.