Biggest uke "gamble"?

I have three ukulele's. All bought after some research online but without seeing playing hearing them in person. So I do think they are all a gamble. The Koaloha tenor was perhaps the biggest question due to cost and wondering if I would like it. I like it! I have kept all three, the Fluke, the Koaloha, and my new Godin. Instruments can be such a personal thing, buying and then trying can be a toss up for many people, sometimes it works out, sometimes it does not.
 
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I tried a bunch of Ukes in the two years I’ve been playing. Only a couple were duds, but some I just didn’t bond with. That was mainly a neck shape/size issue.

^^Yes. I wanted to give a baritone a try and grabbed an inexpensive Lanikai from eBay. The neck profile was weird (very thin with the frets spaced far apart), so the reaches were tough for my stubby fingers. It played fine otherwise. I listed it on the Marketplace and ended up swapping it for a mid-level concert (Lanikai, by chance) and it’s a delight. Thin neck again, but the fret spacing is more reasonable on the shorter neck. So it worked out after all.
 
I bought a ukulele from eBay. When it arrived it had a rattle and the nut was broken. I wrote the company that sells the ukulele and they sent me a new nut, free. Probably didn’t hurt that I was a previous buyer. The rattle was resolved a bit of glue. No problems after that.
 
Maybe it is just me but with so many on line purchases I'll just state my philosophy of UAS purchases and out comes. First caught in 1989 with a plastic Maccferri. After a few purchases I had to limit myself to a specific category and price. I decided to search for the somewhat mythical noname player. Found one, since passed onward, but had the non qualifiers as well sold in bulk or donated. Next category was the unusual like a Trehollipee, a non restorable 8 string with a built in GCEA pitch pipe, I still have most of these gathering dust either as wall hangers or tucked way. I've gambled on quality ukuleles which is similar to gambling on love that results from spectacular to being let go. As many of you know, my final burst was abused vintage Martins some 8 years ago. I have since been passing them on to give them a new life as they come out of the rescue room.
I have to say my gambling has been money looser, as most gambling is, but is has brought Joy and satisfaction beyond price.
 
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If buying an instrument without playing it first is a definition of gambling, then I'm a very good gambler, if I do say so myself. :eek:

I've had very few cases of buyers' remorse, and almost all the stringed instruments of various sorts that I currently own were purchased online and pre-owned, starting with the viola I've played professionally for 20 years. That was my first-ever eBay purchase, back when eBay was still mostly unknown, and my colleagues all thought I was nuts sending money to a stranger - a Texas guitar dealer, no less - who had gotten it on a trade. But that viola and I turned out to be a match made in heaven, as it far surpassed one that had cost me five times more a decade and a half earlier (which I had played prior to buying, but in a time where there were few choices to be had).

On the topic of ukes, though, I'm quite happy with all of the four I've gotten, one on eBay and three in the Marketplace.

bratsche
 
There is risk/uncertainty in almost any uke bought without playing it first. Not sure gamble is the right word for me. No uke I’ve bought was a gamble, some purchases were made on less hard data than others. I’ve bought/ordered some ukes just on builder reputation and videos of previous builds.... and been exceedingly pleased. Yes there was risk and uncertainty like most things in life. Wouldn’t have said I was gambling. :)
 
My first non-plastic uke purchase was a cracked Kamaka soprano white label. I knew it had a crack when I hit the "Buy It Now" button. Took it straight for repair, change of tuners, strap button. No regrets, though I learned about intonation higher up the fretboard & sopranos the hard way.
 
Wow, where do I start... If I haven't heard of it, I'll probably be tempted to roll the dice. Bought a couple ukuleles from MGM, an early Kanilea with a bridge that was a little off that I sent back. Then there was a DeCava (jazz luthier) 5K replica off Reverb (had a sunken soundboard that made it unplayable and I sent it back), and recently a KLOS. But most likely the biggest gamble was an ASD tenor ukulele I bought in 2007. I doubt if few people have heard of ASD or the luthier Keith Ogata. I believe "deach" had one, but that is a member from years gone by.

At any rate, Keith made a design of ukulele that only had a side port, that was round, and no sound hole on the soundboard. For 2007 that was quite an oddity. Besides, the ukulele was offered on eBay with a few cosmetic blemishes, I was on a business trip, and had my son had to place the bid. What could go wrong? I did check out the ASD website and sent off some questions prior to making the decision. A week and $525 (which was not that cheap) later I had this really cool ukulele with some issues. High action, the bridge was off by about 1/8" that caused me to make a custom upside-down "L" saddle to get the intonation correct. Then I discovered the 6th fret was off slightly, but I was able to file an offset crown on the fret to fix the intonation it. With an 18" scale it was always tough to get the tone dialed in as it always was a little too bright for me. I have tried all sorts of strings and tunings and have settled, for now, on Bb. The long scale with lower tuning and heavier strings just sings.

But I have played the heck out of that ukulele. I just love it. There are divots all over the fingerboard and I have dragged that uke along on so many trips on the mainland and to Hawaii where it originally came from. If I had to play one ukulele like my life depended on it, that would be the one.

John
 
I don't know if the post above is from a bot or not but I'm glad for the revival of this thread nonetheless. :D

I think I've always mostly done my research when I've ordered a uke so I don't have many gambles gone bad. A couple of gambles on some vintage ukes have actually gone very well for me but I do have a few less-than-optimal ones.

The first I think was a Kai KCI-5000 ordered from a big European music retailer. The instrument itself was fine - excellent in fact for the price - but the retailer obviously didn't provide any setup so the intonation was awful. I had to set it up myself, and in the end I actually made a custom compensated saddle for it in order to improve intonation. After that, it played beautifully but I ended up selling it. A fun little project.

I suppose one gamble was ordering a Kamaka HF-1 from a well-known UK music shop who advertised that they'd provide a premium setup for their instruments but when I received the uke it was evidently clear that the setup was anything but. Action way too high at both the nut and saddle causing major intonation issues, and in addition to that the nut slots were cut so badly that the strings occasionally were caught in the nut slots making tuning an absolute pain. Thankfully, I was able to also set this one up myself and sell it on since I ultimately didn't prefer the Kamaka sound.

My most recent gamble was a Noah Pineapple Soprano ordered directly from the manufacturer's website. I had known their ukes to be somewhat scruffy in terms of finishing but I didn't expect the intonation to be so completely out of whack as it was. That particular uke is at my local luthier so I'm hoping he can sort it out. We shall see.
 
Since I joined the uke scene during the height of the pandemic; all my purchases have been online, sight-unseen. So, I took a few gambles on ukes.

The first was on my Kamaka HF-1. It was my first premium uke, costing almost 4x higher than my most-expensive uke at that time. This turned out to be an excellent decision, a winning bet. It's my favorite uke: it sounds just like what I imagine a uke should sound like and it fits me great. This is the uke that I always play (in fact, its only uke that lives outside of its case).

The HF-1 opened the door to more premium ukes (another Kamaka, a Koaloha, and a Kanilea). Unfortunately, those gambles didn't work out for me. I mean, they are good ukes but I just don't play them much.

I've also bought many Kala-branded ukes, but I never thought they were "gambles" because they aren't very expensive; and if I sell them, I pretty much get all my money back.

Anyway, I think I've learned something from all that. I've not bought a uke in many, many months. So, may be even the bad-outcome gambles I took was actually good. Good in the sense that they helped me realize just how good the HF-1 matched me. So, I have no UAS.
 
The biggest gamble(s) I have taken were:

I was still pretty new to ukulele when I bought a Kanile'a K1-T on Ebay. It had blonde koa, which was quite different and I really liked it. It had been for sale for several months. Had lots of watchers and a couple of low ball bids. I thought the price being asked was reasonable. I asked him to cover shipping and he agreed. It was my first K-Brand tenor. I still have it and enjoy it.

I was on Facebook's Ukulele Marketplace and a 100th Anniversary Kamaka tenor came up for sale. It was used regularly, but was calimed to be in excellent condition. The photos looked good. The price was comparable to the few that I'd seen but was too late to get. I asked the seller about dings and dents, scratches, cracks.etc. He replied that there were only some light strumming scratches on it. He lied. There was a BIG dent in it in the upper bout next to the neck. A plethora of small ones on the edges. And several dings in the top and back. Plus, the case was covered in stickers to hide the damage to it. I told him I wanted to return it because the condition was not what he said it was. And send copies of his emails to back that up. Long story short, he refunded my money a month after I returned the uke.

I had one other from an early number Cocobolo tenor listed on Flea Market. The seller disclosed a dent in the headstock and a ding on the edge of the lower bout. I really liked the Cocobolo's grain pattern and the sap wood edges. I could live with the dent and ding. So I paid the asking price of a new one to him For the used one. He had carefully taken pictures that didn't show that the top had separated from the bottom side. Where it had suffered from a big impact. He claimed it must have happened in shipping. We negotiated a repair refund. And he used my photos of the damage to get an insurance payout. On close inspection of his original photos, I could just make out an edge where the top separated. So, it was a scam from the get-go. I had it repaired, but the intonation was not right. I gave it away to a friend.

I've never had a problem with any of the 25-plus ukuleles purchases I've made here on the UU Forum Marketplace. They haven't been much of a gamble.
 
I guess my first uke was somewhat of a gamble and a learning experience. It was an Alulu made of some figured wood. It had terrible intonation and when I held it up against the light it was shining through along the figuring. My luthier said this was common with figured wood that the builders just fill in the gaps with glue. I got a partial refund and sold the uke locally so the person who bought it could inspect and play it and be certain of what they got. I used the money to buy a Gretsch uke from a reputable dealer which I still like to play. And I kept the Alulu case which is a perfect fit for my six string Kamaka. And yeah lessons learned are not to buy cheap Ebay ukes, and to stay away from exotic figured woods.
 
Since I joined the uke scene during the height of the pandemic; all my purchases have been online, sight-unseen. So, I took a few gambles on ukes.

The first was on my Kamaka HF-1. It was my first premium uke, costing almost 4x higher than my most-expensive uke at that time. This turned out to be an excellent decision, a winning bet. It's my favorite uke: it sounds just like what I imagine a uke should sound like and it fits me great. This is the uke that I always play (in fact, its only uke that lives outside of its case).

The HF-1 opened the door to more premium ukes (another Kamaka, a Koaloha, and a Kanilea). Unfortunately, those gambles didn't work out for me. I mean, they are good ukes but I just don't play them much.

It is expensive and time consuming to figure out what brand and sound fits you, especially if you commit to premium brands. Unless you live by one of the very few shops that carry multiple premium brands, the only way to find your preferences is through trial and error. I have bought and sold a few nice ukuleles in that process, but I would not consider that a gamble won or lost. It is just a part of learning and growing. I was very surprised to not like and return a Kamaka baritone that I bought brand new from an online dealer. Even after listening to so many videos, I had to play it in person to find out. Again, I do not see that as gambling.

The biggest gambles, I suppose, are the ukuleles purchased used from forums like this. On that front, I have only had good experiences here, and have either received instruments that met my expectations or exceeded them. My Kanilea baritone is a great example of the latter.
 
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I think in general, the risk is not just the ukes bought but also that one’s preferences change...
 
When I bought my PONO MTD on ebay. I really just heard they were nice ukes. AT the time I had a Kala MTK. No buyer's remorse here.
 
The first uke I bought (and still have) was a Mele koa custom tenor. I bought it thinking I'd "one and done" it. That was sixteen ukes ago. Luckily, I currently "only" own six of them. So technically, I lost my own bet, but I'm in a happy place now.
 
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I guess my big "gamble" was that I saw an ukulele advertised on craigslist, it looked interesting and was only $20, but no details. It was close, so I went and looked at it, it turned out to be an old Regent baritone, I figured since it was cheap, so I'd try putting GCEA strings on it and try it out. Well, I couldn't get the tuners to hold at all, so I replaced the tuners with grover geared and strung it up. Well, it didn't sound very good with GCEA, so I put some aquila baritone strings on it, it sounded pretty nice that way, but I don't play baritone, so offered it for sale to my friends for what I had in it ($80), a friend bought it and enjoys it.
regent.jpg IMG_20180222_094730122.jpg
 
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My first uke i bought was a Bruko soprano, I fell in love with playing immediately. It was so much fun, so I wanted to upgrade into something I could grow into. Since I’m from Minnesota, there aren’t a lot of places to buy ukes, which leads me to reverb. Found a kamaka hf-1l 2018. New condition. I was a little nervous in spending that much on a uke (they were asking $1100), but offered $900. When he accepted, I got all nervous. Crazy enough, the guy lived about 15 minutes from me, so I drove to pick it up, sort of thinking I was making a mistake spending that much since I didn’t really know how to play. When I first saw it, it looked like art to me. It was beautiful. Since then, I’ve bought many other uke, but it still seems like one of my favorites. So perfect and little. Love it! 20B08802-5317-4790-97DA-6B1C1698DB1E.jpg
 
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