No love for concert scale

RafterGirl

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Warning.....I'm going to hop on my soapbox for a few seconds.

Why are most of the really cool ukes that I see on the HMS website tenors? Today, they send out an email with all these really cool new custom ukes. I get excited, then see that they are all tenors. Tenor choices on HMS outnumber concerts 2:1 most of the time. I know they have the Hoffman & the aNueNue Moonbird concerts right now, but it seems that the bulk of the really special ukes are tenors. How about some concert love!
Just an observation & some whining by a concert scale lover. I'll hop down now.
 
So many cool tenors, cause all the cool people play tenor:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:

Sorry couldn't help myself.

Jake, James Hill, Daniel Ho.......dont get much cooler than that
 
I'm loving concerts more and more, and the majority of mine are tenors. My newest (and last? hahahaha) with be an alto- concert neck and a body between a soprano and concert - from Beansprout. I'm pretty sure it will immediately be my favorite uke!
 
I find myself drawn to the concert scale as well, and am not bothered by the lack of “high end” concerts, as all of the K-Brands offer concert instruments, and any of those instruments will sound just as good as any custom; they just won’t be as “blingy.”
 
So many cool tenors, cause all the cool people play tenor:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:

Sorry couldn't help myself.

Jake, James Hill, Daniel Ho.......dont get much cooler than that
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe the concert players would be cool kids if we had the cool toys to play with :rock:
 
I love concert scale, my favourite building scale is concert. My most played personal uke's / banjo ukes are all concert.
 
Wasn’t always that way. Some famous builders focused on concert-sized ukes when they made them. Santa Cruz and Collings are examples.
 
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe the concert players would be cool kids if we had the cool toys to play with :rock:

Hey, I think I'm pretty cool. :)

I've sold all the ukuleles I've had that weren't concerts, & don't expect to buy anything but concerts going forward. So, like you, it's disappointing when there are far more choices for tenors than concerts. But I think of the $ I potentially save by getting tempted by fewer ukuleles.

My hands are also picky about the neck, so that knocks some concerts out of the running too.

While the "standard" ukuleles are great to play, IMO there is something special about some of those "cool" ukuleles that make playing those extra enjoyable, especially when playing fingerstyle. It's not just about bling.
 
I don’t care as much about bling, but custom builds have unique wood, design, and of course sweet sound.
 
I'm a strictly tenor guy, but if you go to eBay and search for concert ukulele, you'll see a lot.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/videos
 
A well respected maker of custom and one of a kind ukuleles, once said that there was as much time and care making a soprano as making a tenor. and he could get more for a tenor than the others.
 
Many people are drawn to the tenor's longer scale and bigger body- deeper sound, more sustain, lots of range with a low G. I say this as someone that loves tenors most, but enjoys concerts too! Overall, when it comes to higher end ukulele, there's just more of a market for builders to build tenors and for shops to stock tenors.

A less influential factor is that you're also looking at HMS. Out on the islands tenor is totally the dominant size. Friends who are Hawai'i residents and pro players I've talked to tell me that concert and soprano are keiki (kid's) instruments, for the most part. Not always but there is a bit of an attitude like that for some. At the biggest uke store on Maui that stocks great instruments, the staff told me they were surprised when I came in one day last year and said I'd like to see any high end sopranos they had in stock. "Nobody comes in and asks that right off the bat!" It just is what it is, I guess.
 
Back in the 30s/40s, sopranos were all the rage, now it's tenors, just the way it goes, if people want them, they'll make & sell them. :)

Having less choice saves money, & you'll probably end up getting a better quality uke when you do spend your money. ;)

My favourite size is a tenor necked concert, not many around, so I save money, & concentrate on what I've got. :cool:
 
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe the concert players would be cool kids if we had the cool toys to play with :rock:

Moore Bettah, Koolau, Kinnard, Kimo, Loprinzi, Compass Rose and Ono come quickly to mind as great custom builders who make concerts. Can't get much cooler than that
 
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Koolau, Kinnard, Kimo, Loprinzi, Compass Rose and Ono come quickly to mind as great custom builders who make concerts. Can't get much cooler than that

Thank you Dave. BTW, I have a MBU concert.

A few years ago there was a sales survey in one of the music trade publications (sorry, but I don't remember which). With it there was a sidebar to the main article (Ukulele Explosion) which compared the sales of ukes by size worldwide and in North America. Worldwide, concerts were easily number one in sales volume. In North America, tenor sales were tops, but by a smaller margin. Sopranos were a distant third, and Baritones far, far less.

Unfortunately, the sales chart did not include any info on price point.
 
Thank you Dave. BTW, I have a MBU concert.

A few years ago there was a sales survey in one of the music trade publications (sorry, but I don't remember which). With it there was a sidebar to the main article (Ukulele Explosion) which compared the sales of ukes by size worldwide and in North America. Worldwide, concerts were easily number one in sales volume. In North America, tenor sales were tops, but by a smaller margin. Sopranos were a distant third, and Baritones far, far less.

Unfortunately, the sales chart did not include any info on price point.

Oh man how could I forget Moore Bettah........forgive Chuck:p

Will add it to my post, thanks Steve
 
According to two Polls done here, the favorite brand is KoAloha, and the favorite size is tenor. If more people want tenors, more manufacturers will build them. Maybe people prefer tenors because they are bigger, and there is more to see.
Performers often use tenors because of the sound advantage, although, at a recent uke fest, both Del Rey and Jared Denhard used sopranos for their workshops in a large auditorium.

I own, play, and enjoy all sizes.
 
If I recall correctly from Dirk/Southcoast Strings website (RIP), the concert is the optimal scale and resonance for the standard GCEA reentrant tuning
 
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