Jerryc41
Well-known member
Definitely attached to the neck, near the body. I don't like the balance when it's attached to the headstock.
My opinion is that the choice is about what you want to do with the uke. If you want to do several things, you have to prioritise which is most important.
1. Don't drill a collectible you need to keep in pristine condition to maintain re-sale. The straps pins should not really affect re-sale, but they can. If there are no pins a buyer has the choice of fitting pins or not. If the uke already has the pins, the buyer has no choice unless he or she wants to remove the pins and try to fix the holes.
I definitely agree with this one. It's not just the price but the rareness of how special it is that would keep me from adding a strap button or two. You can't complain about an instrument that is in the same condition as when it left the factory/workshop.
I have heard this about guitars as well. I own a '62 Martin D-21 and a '50 Gibson LG1. Folks told me not to put a button in the heel of either as I would decrease the value. I finally decided that playability is more important to me than resale value. A couple of decades ago, my insurance company requested that I get an official assessment of the value of my guitars. I took them to the Twelfth Fret in Toronto and paid for an assessment. I asked the expert who assessed the value of the guitars if the heel button had any effect on the value of the guitars and he assured me that it had absolutely no effect.
Now I don't know about ukuleles, but I feel that if I'm gonna use it as a player, I should make it as playable as possible. I play standing when I perform and I can't play anything more complicated than first position chords without a strap. Granted, I don't own any vintage instruments, but if I did, they would get at least a strap button in the butt of the uke.
I teach at our local music store and I suggest a strap button on the first day of lessons if the student doesn't have one on their uke.
Jerry says, "You can't complain about an instrument that is in the same condition as when it left the factory/workshop," but I can complain if the instrument is not playable for my purposes and a simple alteration will fix this.
If an added strap button can affect the desirability/price, then surely, adding a pickup must also.
...proceeded to drill into the neck of my custom-built ukulele, without so much as a pencil mark to guide him.