Has UU influenced any of your ukulele buying?

The first one not so much. I found UU in my search to validate the ukulele that I had already bought while I was waiting for it to arrive. The second, most assuredly I bought strictly because at the time it was the hot ukulele, best value, yadda yadda yadda, and everyone who got one was raving about it. The third, that was an impulse, it doesn't even count. The fourth one I felt quite confident and knowledgeable when I bought it, mostly because of what I had learned from UU. By that time I was much more sophisticated in my search and knew what attributes to look for. So UU served me well to prepare me when it came time to weed them out and find the best one for me. I think this is a great resource.
 
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Agreed. I haven't bought a new ukulele yet since I joined UU, but when I do (and I know I will), I will choose the instrument with a lot more knowledge than I had before. So I appreciate all the great info and perspectives that are offered here.
 
Agreed. I haven't bought a new ukulele yet since I joined UU, but when I do (and I know I will), I will choose the instrument with a lot more knowledge than I had before. So I appreciate all the great info and perspectives that are offered here.

I feel the same way. I'm holding off on a really nice one until I play better. I'm actually really happy with my Kala cedar top since I mostly like to finger pick. I got this one doing a trade with another UU person. I had the same model in tenor that seemed so big I just about gave up playing. Swapped for the concert and love it. I do have a $20 beater I got from a letgo sale that I can throw in a suitcase to travel, but that doesn't really count. Good to have it though
I've also learned a lot about strings and the like. This site is great!
 
Aside from my wife’s Kala, which was the first uke in our household, I researched all the others we bought, mainly using UU for reference.

The reason I found UU in the first place was only because I was interested in buying a Mele ukulele while on vacation, and the only info I could find via Google were reviews on here.
 
Aside from my wife’s Kala, which was the first uke in our household, I researched all the others we bought, mainly using UU for reference.

The reason I found UU in the first place was only because I was interested in buying a Mele ukulele while on vacation, and the only info I could find via Google were reviews on here.

Did you end up buying that Mele? My Mele was one of the ukes that I bought in spite of mixed reviews on UU. I was in their shop in Maui and I fell in love with the sound and feel of it, so I bought it anyway and never looked back. It is by far my favourite uke.
 
Did you end up buying that Mele? My Mele was one of the ukes that I bought in spite of mixed reviews on UU. I was in their shop in Maui and I fell in love with the sound and feel of it, so I bought it anyway and never looked back. It is by far my favourite uke.

I did and loved it...until I bought a Kanile‘a pineapple, which is now also gone. My uke journey is teaching me that while I love the sound of koa, it isn’t my favorite. And I still have a nice little vintage koa soprano for when I want that sound.
 
After my first or second Uke purchase, it sure did. Not so much in the way of a direct influence but UU opened the doors of perception enough for me to do my own research and find the instruments that I thought that I would enjoy.
Particularly when I started buying custom builds(2nd hand at first) the discussions I had with UU members gave me the confidence to take those leaps of faith that is required when buying an expensive instrument when you don’t have the opportunity to play it first.
 
I did and loved it...until I bought a Kanile‘a pineapple, which is now also gone. My uke journey is teaching me that while I love the sound of koa, it isn’t my favorite. And I still have a nice little vintage koa soprano for when I want that sound.

What tone wood is your favorite now? Since I love the bell like chime of finger picked resonators, I'm spared the decision of a favorite tone wood.
 
I wouldn’t have my wonderful aNueNue Moon Bird if it wasn’t for UU. My first “good” was my KoAloha, purchased from a member of my uke group. While it wasn’t purchased directly from UU, I never would have appreciated it’s quality & value if I hadn’t first learned about the K brands on UU.
 
I did and loved it...until I bought a Kanile‘a pineapple, which is now also gone. My uke journey is teaching me that while I love the sound of koa, it isn’t my favorite. And I still have a nice little vintage koa soprano for when I want that sound.

Interesting. I haven't had the funds to get anything better than my Mele yet. I've had the opportunity to play a few ukes, though. When I bought the Mele, I really disliked the sound of spruce tops and I leaned towards mahogany and koa, but I recently had the opportunity to play a few spruce tops and I found that I actually really like them. I think it's because my right-hand attack lacked finesse when I first looked at ukes, whereas now I have a bit more subtlety. FWIW, I think the best ukes that I have played have been a spruce top Da Silva and an all koa Pohaku. I've also had the opportunity to play Kanilea, Kamaka, and Koaloha, and I'm a little bit torn between Koaloha and Kamaka. I would take either over Kanilea.
 
What tone wood is your favorite now? Since I love the bell like chime of finger picked resonators, I'm spared the decision of a favorite tone wood.

Loving Cedar and Cypress tops with very hard body. If I could get my hands on a Light Bird, I would be pretty happy.

And a custom build from Michael Smith at Goat Rock Ukulele using CA native woods (Monterey Cypress and Black Walnut, with possible use of California Buckeye for decoration and maybe even Bay Laurel for something, binding perhaps...it supposedly also makes for very good body wood, and has some of the most striking color variation I’ve seen outside of some crazy cuts of Eucalyptus and Mango.
 
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Interesting. I haven't had the funds to get anything better than my Mele yet. I've had the opportunity to play a few ukes, though. When I bought the Mele, I really disliked the sound of spruce tops and I leaned towards mahogany and koa, but I recently had the opportunity to play a few spruce tops and I found that I actually really like them. I think it's because my right-hand attack lacked finesse when I first looked at ukes, whereas now I have a bit more subtlety. FWIW, I think the best ukes that I have played have been a spruce top Da Silva and an all koa Pohaku. I've also had the opportunity to play Kanilea, Kamaka, and Koaloha, and I'm a little bit torn between Koaloha and Kamaka. I would take either over Kanilea.

Don’t get me wrong, my Mele was great! Just not my forever uke.

I’ve yet to play a current Kamaka or a made in Hawaii KoAloha, so I don’t think I can make a fair comparison against the Kanile‘a Platinum I had...that thing was dynamite.
 
Don’t get me wrong, my Mele was great! Just not my forever uke.

I’ve yet to play a current Kamaka or a made in Hawaii KoAloha, so I don’t think I can make a fair comparison against the Kanile‘a Platinum I had...that thing was dynamite.

Well, the Koaloha was the most playable of the three brands, and certainly had the biggest sound of the three. The look just doesn't do it for me. The Kamaka was much more understated, but it had a sort of sparkly quality to the sound. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. The Kanilea was nice, but I don't really have anything to say about it other than that. If I was going to buy a K brand, it would probably be a Kamaka or a Koaloha, but to be perfectly honest, if I was going to spend that much money, I would probably get a Pohaku or a Barron River or something of that ilk.
 
Yesterday, someone here sent me a PM telling me about a uke that was for sale because he had seen me mention it a couple of times. I resisted buying it - four about six hours. No sales resistance at all - but I think that will be my last uke purchase. : )

I'll do a NUD by the end of the week.
 
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