Another Reason Why I Like Ukes

A few years ago, I bought a tenor uke kit from StewMac, and it cost $206. Now they are having a sale on guitar kits for $200 off, and you pay over $1,000 for the kit. Ukes are smaller, lighter, cheaper, and lots of fun. Viva Ukulele!

https://www.stewmac.com/Materials_a...l&utm_source=NPA&utm_content=M1234_B_20190920

I have to agree with you there, guitars are just too big, making them cumbersome, & too expensive. :music:

Probably why I started out with harmonicas, ukes, & now whistles & simple system keyless flutes. :cheers:

I played guitar for almost 50 years, I had four nice ones. Then 6 years ago I started to play ukulele and found them so comfortable and convenient that I never touched my guitars again and gave them away.

---

This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 11 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 35)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

Croaky Keith said:

I have to agree with you there, guitars are just too big, making them cumbersome, & too expensive. :music:

Probably why I started out with harmonicas, ukes, & now whistles & simple system keyless flutes. :cheers:

Click to expand...

In my travels today, I stopped into Guitar Center. They had the usual collection of Mitchell, Cordoba, Prestige (?) and Luna ukes. Best of the bunch was the Codoba 15C, but all inexpensive imports. Then I checked out the guitar room, and picked up a used Taylor 110e dread, price was $519.00. Holy smokes, the thing seemed so huge! But it had a heavenly sound, and were I still playing guitars, I would have had serious GAS right there on the spot!

Nah, take up too much space.....

I play my guitars, requintos and ukuleles almost daily so they all feel comfortable. I didn't touch my bass for a long time and it felt huge when I finally needed it on a track. You tend to get used to what you do on a regular basis. I think guitar and ukulele prices have been equalizing for a long time as cheap and moderately priced guitar and ukuleles cost about the same. On the high end, the ukulele is working hard to catch up with more expensive guitars...

I played the guitar for about a month, maybe not even that long. At the time I had a home in Iowa and another in Puerto Rico. I was travelling back and forth several times a year. I found the ukulele and I though how easy would that little thing be to haul back and forth. My wife and I like to travel. Often we take off for a weekend and end up coming home ten days later. It is so much easier to throw a ukulele in the trunk or in a suitcase and take it with me. There used to be a TV show called Have Gun, Will Travel. It is about a gunslinger who travels around selling his talent with a gun throughout the west. I feel like "Have Ukulele, Will Travel". I love that I can just take my music with me anywhere I go. I've played my ukuele all over. I'm just afraid if I played anything else it would spend most of its life at home while I wasn't.

I play guitar regularly at home and in church, but also have several ukes. In the past couple of years I have started building my own, and have been mostly pleased with what I have produced so far (we won't talk about the one epic failure!). I plan to build a small body guitar for my regular guitar playing. I have trouble stretching very far on a 25.5" full scale acoustic.

I suppose I could say I've always had a little bit of "guitar envy". I want to play the low notes! But the scale length is too long for me! Add to that my desire for fifths tuning, so I can have the familiarity I've always known. I came to UU from the MandolinCafe board a few years ago. I had acquired several mandolas, but also wanted to have something lower. After converting a Baby Taylor to an octave mandolin, I still found the stretches to be a bit much.

I got a baritone ukulele as my first venture into uke-ing, and tuned it the same - GDAE. The scale length was much more comfortable - but something else happened that I didn't anticipate. I fell in love with the mellow nylon sound! So steel strings have taken a back seat for now.

Since I still wish I could play even lower notes, I'm having a one-of-a-kind big hybrid 5-string nylon instrument built (which is very near completion) to be tuned CGDAE, all with a scale of just 20.5"! I don't think that would be possible with steel strings. And I can hardly wait to get my hands on it...

But I don't think it will be traveling with me, unless it's somewhere I'm driving! :biglaugh:

bratsche

Rllink said:

There used to be a TV show called Have Gun, Will Travel. It is about a gunslinger who travels around selling his talent with a gun throughout the west.

Click to expand...

Yes, that was a good show - a legitimate gun for hire. I remember his business card, "Wire Paladin, San Francisco." I wondered if he traveled throughout the wild west leaving his cards at saloons.

I go to several uke fests each year, and it's easy to bring three ukes in the back of my little Honda.

Jerryc41 said:

A few years ago, I bought a tenor uke kit from StewMac, and it cost $206. Now they are having a sale on guitar kits for $200 off, and you pay over $1,000 for the kit. Ukes are smaller, lighter, cheaper, and lots of fun. Viva Ukulele!

https://www.stewmac.com/Materials_a...l&utm_source=NPA&utm_content=M1234_B_20190920

Click to expand...

Lately smaller and lighter are different meaning to me. I used to play mostly in standing posture and prefer not to use straps, hence smaller is better than lighter. Lately I play often in sitting posture. Smaller uku doesn't stay good on my lap and I prefer to use strap. Lighter uku is better.