Never make due when you can buy something new.

Rllink

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
4,566
Reaction score
292
Location
Ames, Iowa
I was going to make this comment on another thread, but I'll let it go there. Because I realized that one never makes due when they can buy something new. Just saying, I came to a UU realization this afternoon. ;)
 
I buy new all the time, just bought two more short scale guitars to convert to mini basses and a mini bass that's being setup. I love GAS.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 13 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 37)

• 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
 
I was going to make this comment on another thread, but I'll let it go there. Because I realized that one never makes due when they can buy something new. Just saying, I came to a UU realization this afternoon. ;)

I was confused about the comment and then wondered whether it was ‘American’ English and whether ‘never make do when you can buy new’ would be the ‘British’ English equivalent. Perhaps I’ve still misunderstood your point, sorry if that’s the case.
Ref: https://www.grammar.com/make_do_vs._make_due

There are exceptions but in general I refuse to buy anything that I don’t actually need and do make do with worn and non-optimal items, mostly my use of any item doesn’t require it to be the ‘the best’ or to be in perfect condition (ie. some level of sub-optimal is fine). I’m a firm believer that skill in an item’s use is more important than most other things and that excessive purchasing of stuff is ecologically bad. So long as the results are acceptable and the process (use) isn’t too fatiguing I’m happy to make do regardless of whether that’s a financial choice or not - maybe that’s more a European than American perspective

Of course continuing to ‘make due’ or ‘make do’ with something that simply can’t deliver the required results in the hands of a suitably skilled person isn’t ideal. There are progressively points at which, if you have the (improved) skills and can afford to do so, it becomes appropriate to buy something that can produce the required (incrementally better) results. Having said that folk mostly buy stuff that’s significantly better than they’ll ever really need - which to me seems illogical. My own values and thoughts have changed over the years so I can’t say that I’ve never significantly ‘over purchased’ anything :rolleyes: .
 
Last edited:
Nobody darns socks anymore. And what happened to the man who used to travel around from town to town mending metal cooking pans? Where can you get a broken umbrella fixed?

It's a strange world in which I find myself.

John Colter
 
I was going to make this comment on another thread, but I'll let it go there. Because I realized that one never makes due when they can buy something new. Just saying, I came to a UU realization this afternoon. ;)

I had to first watch the video posted by Sven-uke then read your comment over about 4 times before I got it.........I think.

Are you referring to the fact we (the collective we) as a society now just buy stuff instead of using and enjoying what you have. As common products become cheaper ie flat screen TV for $400 vs $4000 a decade ago we quickly buy the latest and greatest and just toss out the one we had. With ukulele we get caught up in the hype and have to have it. Commercialism at its finest

Indeed, why make do when you can buy something new.
 
Last edited:
There are some things I wouldnt buy used, shoes, boxer shorts, bedding etc, but thats hygeine reasons.
I've bought in excess of 300 guitars and ukes in my life, only a small proportion were new.
I've never bought a new car, or a house (far too expensive), and the next time I am due to purchase another uke or guitar, the laws of probability say it will be a used (hopefully not abused) one.
 
Yes, buying a "new one" is nice. Actually, I look for used or refurbished, depending on what the item is. Most of the used ukes I've bought have been indistinguishable from new, except for the price.
 
Last edited:
I usually buy new and then make due. For instance I still regularly wear socks and shirts that I had in the 80's.

Speaking of shirts, what bugs me is that I have to throw away shirts merely because the collar or cuffs are damaged. When shirts had detachable cuffs and collars, you could replace the parts that needed replacing and keep the same shirt.
 
I have a leather jacket that I bought in the 1950s!

It seems to have shrunk.

John Colter
 
Drives me nuts that you can't repair things the way you could before. Trying fixing the dryer: instead of swapping out the belt, it's all the electrical that needs fixing. Same with cars. Good thing my cars are 35 yo mopeds.
Most new clothing is just crap. I've found better quality in goodwill, though I figure that will end when people are dumping mostly the crap quality they have now. sigh...
Oh, I did repair my own umbrella lol.
2 of 3 of my ukes are used. Heck it's getting played. It's going to get dinged or whatever eventually. Kind of like all of us. Life
 
I was confused about the comment and then wondered whether it was ‘American’ English and whether ‘never make do when you can buy new’ would be the ‘British’ English equivalent. Perhaps I’ve still misunderstood your point, sorry if that’s the case.
Ref: https://www.grammar.com/make_do_vs._make_due
Good catch Graham. Sorry that it confused you. It probably should have been do, not due. In my professional life I do have an editor who catches all of those little slip ups, but she refuses to edit my forum posts, oh well. But you got it figured out, and that's what counts. ;)

I tend to make do with something I already have if I can. My wife and I were talking about it the other day. I was heading out the door for a group strum with my old Makala sticking out of a book bag that my thirty two year old son used in middle school. My wife suggested that I buy a new backpack that doesn't look like something a middle school kid would be sporting. Maybe that isn't a good example. I have a gig bag for it somewhere, it just wasn't as handy as the old book bag. But I think that what got me going on the subject is the car uke. Most of those types of threads my first reaction, when I put myself in that situation, is to think of something I already have that would work and suggest that other people do the same. So I think that I just came to a realization that most people use those situations as a reason to get a new ukulele. I'm not helping, so I need to quit doing that. They don't want to use their old $65 Makala for a car uke, or camping uke, or a beach uke, they want a new uke. I just thought that maybe it worth a comment. Maybe not. Anyway, I like all the responses and I especially like to poem from the Samurai Guitarist.
 
Good catch Graham. Sorry that it confused you. It probably should have been do, not due. In my professional life I do have an editor who catches all of those little slip ups, but she refuses to edit my forum posts, oh well. But you got it figured out, and that's what counts. ;)

I tend to make do with something I already have if I can. My wife and I were talking about it the other day. I was heading out the door for a group strum with my old Makala sticking out of a book bag that my thirty two year old son used in middle school. My wife suggested that I buy a new backpack that doesn't look like something a middle school kid would be sporting. Maybe that isn't a good example. I have a gig bag for it somewhere, it just wasn't as handy as the old book bag. But I think that what got me going on the subject is the car uke. Most of those types of threads my first reaction, when I put myself in that situation, is to think of something I already have that would work and suggest that other people do the same. So I think that I just came to a realization that most people use those situations as a reason to get a new ukulele. I'm not helping, so I need to quit doing that. They don't want to use their old $65 Makala for a car uke, or camping uke, or a beach uke, they want a new uke. I just thought that maybe it worth a comment. Maybe not. Anyway, I like all the responses and I especially like to poem from the Samurai Guitarist.

In bold above added by Graham.

I’m really pleased that my response was (mostly) I’m in-line with your original intent and think that our thoughts on the subject seem to overlap well. Repurposing gives good example of ways that show that we don’t need to buy new and can make do. As a young man making a (problem’s) solution from what ever I had was a necessary way of life and I’m pleased to not have to do that anymore. However old habits die hard and hence I too have pressed a Makala Concert into sterling service and carried it around in an old hold-all, neither looked pretty but for me both did the job required.

“I just came to a realization that most people use those situations as a reason to get a new ukulele”. I’m sure that an awful lot of people use some new purpose or event as reasons, or rather self justification, for buying something that they otherwise would not buy. Christmas will be with us shortly and in many households that involves freshening the home up with those new curtains, decorations and even carpets ready for the visitors to enjoy - “it’s got to be all ready in time for Christmas” is the expensive phrase I’ve sometimes heard. For Weddings and Christenings people seem to buy a new suit or outfit when there’s nothing wrong with the old one, etc. They are buying new when the could - and I suggest that they should - make do.

‘Never make do when you can buy something new’ is surely music to the Marketing Man’s ears; but I say ‘Never buy something new when you can make do’, it's better for your pocket, better for the environment and it keeps you thinking flexibly.
 
Last edited:
I’m really pleased that my response was (mostly) I’m in-line with your original intent and think that our thoughts on the subject seem to overlap well. Repurposing gives good example of ways that show that we don’t need to buy new and can make do. As a young man making a (problem’s) solution from what ever I had was a necessary way of life and I’m pleased to not have to do that anymore. However old habits die hard and hence I too have pressed a Makala Concert into sterling service and carried it around in an old hold-all, neither looked pretty but for me both did the job required.


‘Never make do when you can buy something new’ is surely music to the Marketing Man’s ears; but I say ‘Never buy something new when you can make do’, it's better for your pocket, better for the environment and it keeps you thinking flexibly.

I'm not sure that our thinking is in line with each other Graham. I would say that I am less frugal and more scatterbrained than anything else. Actually the point of my thread is that I don't care if people buy new ukuleles and far be it from me to tell them that they should make do with what they have. I don't want anyone to think that I believe otherwise. They want to buy a new ukulele, that is fine with me, go for it, you don't need to justify it. When you get down to it, no one really needs a ukulele in the first place, so owning even just one could be thought as an extravagance if one wanted to spin it that way.

I’m sure that an awful lot of people use some new purpose or event as reasons, or rather self justification, for buying something that they otherwise would not buy. Christmas will be with us shortly and in many households that involves freshening the home up with those new curtains, decorations and even carpets ready for the visitors to enjoy - “it’s got to be all ready in time for Christmas” is the expensive phrase I’ve sometimes heard. For Weddings and Christenings people seem to buy a new suit or outfit when there’s nothing wrong with the old one, etc. They are buying new when the could - and I suggest that they should - make do.
Guilty as charged on all counts.
 
Last edited:
In terms of the homonyms of this thread:

at least in the United states the standard usage is "due" [e.g., making due] when using it as a verb and "do" when it is an adjective [a make do solution].
 
In terms of the homonyms of this thread:

at least in the United states the standard usage is "due" [e.g., making due] when using it as a verb and "do" when it is an adjective [a make do solution].

Googling and reinforced in multiple replies: : "Make do is a verb phrase that means to use what’s available in non-ideal circumstances. Make do is the correct spelling. Make due is a historical variant that is no longer accepted."

Different than "Honey do..." and "Money due..."
 
My poetry is way worse...

There once was a man from Perdue
Had a uke that he hoped to make do
Though he strummed with his pinkie
The sound was so stinky
It brought memories of Pepe Le Pew

pepe.JPG
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom