Uke acquisition syndrome: tell me about yours and help me with mine

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Ok so I have UAS pretty bad. I’d like to hear/ see y’all’s uke progressions and would love to hear what you looked for in the next uke and so on.

For me, I started with a Kala PWT and stepped up to a solid cedar top/acacia sided beauty that I’m really impressed with. I’m working on getting a banjolele and past that I think I’d like to find an 8 string or a uke for dedicated low-g.


So, let’s hear/ see your collection stories!

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Ignore the bari, she’s gone and the blue is the wife’s
 
Discovered ukulele July 2017. Impulse purchase while on vacation at the beach. $65 Kala laminate hog soprano.

Months later, I still couldn't put it down, so, by October I had purchased an Ohana brand Martin style 3 clone. $320 solid mahogany concert.

Over the next few months, I had purchased two more sopranos, another concert, and a tenor, all of them reasonably priced ~400 - $500 luthier made instruments from the UU Marketplace.

By July 2018 I had six ukuleles, and I self-diagnosed with UAS. At that time I also had a custom tenor on the way. I was trying to figure out what different things the world of ukulele had to offer.

September 2018, custom tenor arrives. Sweet!

January 2020, same seven ukuleles no more UAS. Guess that last one cured me. Or maybe it was the dent in my budget? Either way, I'm one happy ukulelist and I don't feel like I need to purchase anything right now. And even so, I have noticed that I still browse the UU Marketplace and several online uke shops frequently.
 
Still, it's less expensive than a drug habit or collecting sailboats, motorcycles, guns or mistresses, so you could do much worse.

I might try that line with my wife. Wish me luck!! :)
 
UAS ??? Tell me about it!:p
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First uke in 1977...... the rest is history.
 
In June of 2013 I was leafing through a Musician's Friend magazine and came across a ukulele that looked like the Fender Telecaster electric guitar I recently bought. The uke was only $60 and I thought it would look cute hanging next to the Tele. About 2 weeks later I received a post Card from the Los Angeles Music Center announcing their annual summer Play-Along series, which I did a couple of time for guitar, but this time it was for ukulele. I thought since I had one, I'd go for it.

It required learning a few chords, but when I tried them online, I discovered it was rather difficult forming the chords compared to my full size guitars. I looked up ukes and discovered mine was a soprano, and that tenor tends to be recommended for guitar players. So I went over to my my local Sam Ash and bought a Lanikai quilted ash tenor cutaway with electronics.

Being a major gadget freak, in the next year I went through 16 ukes, but when Mim recommended a Kala solid top cedar, I realized the shortcomings of most of the others and sold or gifted all but 4. Since then I've been more discreet and after over 6 years, I'm up to 9, one on it's way, an all bamboo tenor cutaway to replace a tenor walnut Fluke I bought here in the Marketplace that I ultimately don't like.

A year after starting uke, I took up bass uke. That's where gear acquisition syndrome really took me over. I'm up to 32 bass uke/mini bass guitars and loving every minute of it. Many are short scale guitars that I had converted to basses, it's become my hobby since retiring at the same time I started playing uke. You asked for photos, here they are.

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 6 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 41)

• 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
 
Only 3! It is a very mild case of UAS, over 20 is when you realize you have it.
True.. reached that number in 2019 just a mere 2 years into the uke journey.. enjoyed every bit of it! But need to back peddle a bit as I cannot keep all of them accessible and land up earning for the ones in cases too often.. it is a kind of musical chairs of a different kind!
 
I got a Kala Waterman to take camping. It was a fun "gateway drug," that led to many more over the almost 3 years I've been playing. I've never had more than 5-6 at a time, and settled on 4 as my magic number. I've owned about 15 different ukuleles over the years. Sort of like Goldilocks ......some were too big, some too small, some didn't feel right, some didn't sound right. The 4 that I've arrived at all feel and sound perfect to me, and meets my needs. My desire to window shop isn't very strong anymore.
 
To stop me from buying too many ukes, I made a list of the ones I really wanted and then saved up for them. I have enjoyed trying out different makers, woods, and sizes. By now, I own most of the instruments I was craving for, and playing them side by side makes me realize that of the many other nice ukes out there, there won't be any one sounding "better" than what I already have, so I pretty much stopped buying.

My main advice for anyone newly afflicted with UAS would be:
- don't duplicate, spread the love to several makers, woods, sizes, etc.
- find out what you might like and then pursue it, focus n what you really want
- always upgrade from what you already have
- get the best you can afford
- do your research on the makers you are interested in, find out what others have to say about them (but be aware that their preferences might totally differ from yours)
 
Started with a Fender concert uke from Guitar Center. Unfortunately, where I live there are not many stores that have ukes. Was looking for a certain sound after that and had joined UU forum and saw many reviews which started it. Had to try a certain one and then found it was not exactly what I was looking for and it kept going. The good part , if there is a good part, is that it has helped me narrow down exactly what I am looking for in a uke and I do a lot of research before I buy the next one. I also sell my other ones to fund the newer ones. If they were more available it would be better because I could just try them in the store. I have also found out that I do not care for the cheaper ones and hold out until I can buy an expensive one. At present I have 12.
 
If that's all you got, that's not UAS. Might be the start of it, but there's still hope.

LOL. There is always hope.

My UAS was triggered by wanting to try various sizes, necks, woods, etc. and finding out what works best for me.

I've had injuries to my fingers, (like caught in a garage door and stuck there until someone finally heard me yelling for help), that make my fingers particular about what works, but I've now got some great options that sound fantastic, so I'm not expecting to buy any ukuleles in 2020. Then again...UAS can rear its head at any time, I've learned, so you never know.

It sounds like there are some people with some great ukuleles who are thinking about downsizing their collections, so there might be some appealing options popping up in the Marketplace. :)
 
How does that bamboo one, lower left , play. I see the black uke top right, who made that one. I have close to 100 ukuleles, maybe 20 very low end, kids play them along with grandchildren. Several loaned out, I loan high end Ukes as for a starter they need quality before buying one, then off to music store and coming back to high end one for sound and play. Method to my madness, don’t want people just learning to do what I did, was buy the next thing that appealed to me and boy that was often last 8 years.now stilllooking and buying more slowly after knowing what I know and play in my journey to THE ONE. Don’t think that will happen, just today saw couple I WANT, oh my what the hell is wrong with me. You have a nice assortment there, any for sale? Haha
 
Mike, you have virtually all kinds of solid body bass shapes covered!! How do you rotate playing time with all of these instruments? Also, how do you store 'em?

Oh wait, just figured that you don't yet have a Gibson Explorer shape. :)
 
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