Multiple uke owners: how do you pick/rotate which uke to play?

I have 6, 3 tenors and 3 concerts. The concerts are entry level. The tenors are high end, a Kamaka,Kanilea and KoAloha. I only play the tenors presently. When I'm working on something new, I rotate instruments to see which particular uke works best for that piece.

ripock said:

I use guilt as my guide. I cut down my collection to two instruments, one for linear tuning and one for re-entrant tuning. I heavily favor the linear tuning. However, whenever I feel that it has been a while since I've regaled myself with that shrill re-entrant sound I will switch out my ukuleles and justify having the re-entrant ukulele

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Guilt! Guilt has played a big part in my entire ukulele history! My 2nd uke was pretty guilt-free but every one after that has had some degree of guilt for spending even more money on something I didn't need. Guilt over having "too many" ukes made me sell my first uke which I regret to this day. It was a starter+ but I loved that uke. I felt guilt over the losses I took selling three ukes I never bonded with. I think it's guilt which makes me want to give each of my five ukes a roughly equal amount of play time. The beauty in that is that I really love all of them so there's never a bad pick to switch to. It's fun to switch them up fairly regularly because it's kind of like getting a new uke every couple of weeks.

I play whichever one the voices inside my head suggest on any given day.


Scooter

mikelz777 said:

Guilt! Guilt has played a big part in my entire ukulele history! My 2nd uke was pretty guilt-free but every one after that has had some degree of guilt for spending even more money on something I didn't need. Guilt over having "too many" ukes made me sell my first uke which I regret to this day. It was a starter+ but I loved that uke. I felt guilt over the losses I took selling three ukes I never bonded with. I think it's guilt which makes me want to give each of my five ukes a roughly equal amount of play time. The beauty in that is that I really love all of them so there's never a bad pick to switch to. It's fun to switch them up fairly regularly because it's kind of like getting a new uke every couple of weeks.

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I’ve never felt much guilt over the often inevitable loss when reselling. I just consider it tuition in the learning process. Then, with the benefit of experience, I can post very well-considered comments regarding this ukulele and that on the internet... which comments, needless to say, are more often ignored than not.

Be that as it may, a week ago I probably would have said I was done buying more ukuleles for the foreseeable future... but then I bought three more in as many days :/

Getting back to the OP - I don’t have any system to figure out which of my ukes to play other than getting an urge to pick up this one or that one and have at it.

I have four ukes, of which I play at least two 6 days/week. When selecting which uke to play, I choose the one with the most appropriate compromises for the task at hand.

I have 4, plus an Electric Telelele (6 strings, A-A)

For performance, I usually have a high G tenor (Romero) and a low G tenor (Kanile’a). Sometimes I use the TeleLele for low G songs.

My Kamaka Lili 6 gets used in place of a 12 string guitar, like when we do Come Sail Away. I could see bringing the Lili instead of the high G Romero on occasion. I prefer to use the Lili when I have to sing.

Ohana baritone is a fantastic sounding instrument, but so far it’s mostly around the house. I think I took it to 1 gig. I could always capo 5 and convert it to a low G tenor tuning, but the dots would be in the wrong places.

Kinda depends on where I'm gonna play - indoors, outdoors (could get rained on), how crowded the place is, location (nursing home, club, park, house), need to amp? + overall feeling that day.

Also, none of my ukes are in cases, but hanging in various spots around the house. I tend to grab the nearest one unless it’s for something specific.

I play tenors. My first consideration for play/practice is: Re-entrant or Linear? Since I've been trying to learn fingerstyle and TABs, High-g tenors are presently being played more often. If I'm strumming, I prefer the sound of a Low-G.

If I have a new instrument, I usually play that unless the strings are still settling.
Often there is a sound I have in mind, and I'll play the uke that fulfills that. (Most recently, I find myself reaching for a recently acquired Takumi Koa TT1K, strung re-entrant with Living Waters which has a particularly gorgeous ring to it.)

I have a Godin, I don't play often. I have to be in the right mood or playing appropriate music to play a banjo uke. Ditto, my 8-string.

With the quarantine, I have deliberately gone through all of my instruments and played them for a day. Producing some rather surprising results. A handful of tenors I used to adore, no longer appeal to me as much. Whilst others that I long had a "Meh" feeling about, now seem quite excellent.

To me, this is the fun of owning several ukes. It gives me options. They all sound and play differently.

I used to have a system for guitars: during normal daytime hours, I usually play acoustic; during mornings and evenings, I play electric with headphones or unplugged. So, I have an electric and an acoustic guitar hanging on the wall; I further have an acoustic for outside-the-home use that's cased. Since I'm also not too picky about guitars to where I'd only want (for example) a les paul or strat sound, I limited myself to only 3 (where each new purchase must replace a current guitar).

I'm still pretty new at ukulele, so I don't know what my optimal number is. I'm currently thinking that I want 4 ukuleles (2 concerts and 2 sopranos of the same make/model) for the first few years. Anyway, I'm trying that idea out.

I have 22 ukes. The ones that want to be played send me non-verbal signals saying, "Feeeeed me." Seriously.

I have four ukes on the wall that will be coming with us to Hawaii when we move this summer. I've got my Ohana TK39 tuned to A tuning reentrant, and it sounds fantastically mellow and rich -- which makes it great to play along to some slack-key music with or just jam at a bit of a lower key. Then my Kamaka is tuned low G, I use it for pretty much anything and pick it up when I want to fingerpick and play anything with. My Koaloha is a six stringer and is perfect to strum and sing with! Finally, my 1928 Harmony is in standard tuning reentrant, and is a great plucker and strummer and I pick it up any time I want to go tin pan alley or banjo, really.

I can see myself adding ukes when I get over there, but for now I need to pause or I'm just creating more of a shipping headache for myself.