What Uke Would You Choose to Buy Again?

Cluze

Cluze

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Many of us have many instruments. Some might even argue that some of us (I'm looking at me) have too many instruments. As such, I often find myself thinking, if I could only keep one, which would it be? This answer changes from time to time, but I wanted to alter it slightly.

Consider the following hypothetical situation: due to the work of a nefarious ukulele hater, all of your instruments have been stolen. They are gone forever, with no hope of recovery. Your insurance company, due to unspecified reasons, will give you a blank check to buy one, and only one, instrument, with the following catch: you have to buy the exact same make and model as one of the instruments that was just stolen.

To ask it a different way, and closer to the title, which of your current instruments would you buy again, and why that one?

To be clear, you can buy other instruments later if you would like, and you could just use the insurance company's money to buy the most expensive one you want to replace, if that is the way you want to go. But I guess what I am driving at is, if you had to start your collection all over again, what is the first one you would get?
 
My Kanilea K-1 tenor, sweet as butter, and my Pono chambered body tenor and baritone electrics. These last two are loud enough for me to practice on unamplified and they’re great through an amp or into my computer and their necks are very easy to work with. For a soprano the Ohana sk38 is pretty darn nice.
 
mine are custom and unique. Perhaps I would re-contact the luthiers and have them create something. But right now I'm thinking that I would consider it divine judgment on my music and go in a different direction. Perhaps I would buy a mandolin and pursue that.
 
I'll buy the Kala long neck soprano since it works great for strumming... but it's not very good with finger style.
If I can start all over, as in never having owned a ukulele, I'd just get a Kamaka long neck soprano. That way, I don't have to worry about not liking it.
 
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I would replace my Blackbird Clara (includes radiused fretboard). It sounds wonderful as reentrant or linear tuning and I do not pay great attention to its feeding and care.
 
Some are one-off creations and probably not re-purchasable. Some are production ukes that were meticulously chosen, and I have some some doubts about being able to get the same thing by buying another.

So if your question is: if I could somehow buy the exact same instrument, which would I re-purchase? Maybe my Kamaka concert or UkeSA soprano. But I don't know if I could buy another of the same model. The soprano was a one-off. And I haven't liked other Kamaka concerts as much as mine.

But if your question is: which model would I buy another of if mine were lost? That would probably be my Larrivee baritone or Martin 0X (though both aren't in production anymore). But this might be misleading, because if I lost all my ukes, the Larrivee and Martin aren't amongst the first ukuleles I'd buy, and aren't even my favorites, even though I like them very much and wouldn't hesitate to buy another of them.

If my ukes were lost, and I could not have the exact same ones back, I'd most likely buy models I don't have. Partly because there are some that I'm thinking about getting eventually. Partly because there are some ukes I haven't gotten because they are too similar to what I already own. Partly because there's just a large number of ukes I'd like to try out.
 
Right now, it's my aNueNue Moon Bird Tenor. Ask me in a couple of weeks and it'll probably be something different. Kind of depends on what music and style I've been playing recently.
 
A Scott Wise tenor made from Tasmanian Blackwood. Got it from and passed it on to fellow UU members....sigh!
 
My Custom Donaldson Concert, a one-of-a-kind instrument. It, of everything I have, is totally irreplaceable.

donaldson.jpg

headstock front.jpg name plate.jpg

So that is the only one I'd want replaced, and I'd want it 100% identical.

Of course, it would be really hard for anyone else to claim that they were the legitimate owner of my instrument...

-Kurt​
 
My Rebel Double Cheese tenor. It has great sound, easy playability, lovely woodwork and an oh-so-light light build. For whatever reason, this is the perfect uke for me. If I had to run out during a fire and I could only grab one uke, this would be the one.

But I would try to grab the Kanile'a in my left hand... :D
 
Kala cedar top tenor. It happens to be my most expensive uke. I’m in the process of selling off some of my lesser used ones - I’m making room and cash for a ubass.
 
My Ko'olau C1 concert would be the first one I would replace with whatever the equivalent model is today.
 
I bought a Hadean Ubass for $25 from a retired British studio musician. I love it. Feeding it into Garage Band it sounds very much like a standup bass. I love the Pahoehoe rubber strings. I was learning bass on a halfway decent Yamaha bass, not bad, but nothing special. This Ubass is a revelation. Yes, it’s only good up to the 12th fret, maybe 14th if careful but otherwise fine up and down the neck. They go for something like $160 new from Rondo music. Would gladly buy a new one if something to my $25 buddy, which I play every day.

I’ll probably go on to a bigger bass eventually but happy to always have this one.
 
lakesideglenn said:
A Scott Wise tenor made from Tasmanian Blackwood. Got it from and passed it on to fellow UU members....sigh!
Click to expand...

My Scott Wise Blackwood Tenor Solo is my favourite instrument that I would replace straight away if I could afford to. Mine's actually had a hard life as a busking instrument rather than a pampered life and I get a lot of comments about its sound. It plays very nicely too.
 
My Magic Fluke Koa Tenor with the pegheads.

I have bought quite a few ukes since that, but none that works as well for me.

On a second place, perhaps my Ohana LNS.
 
Cluze said:
Many of us have many instruments. Some might even argue that some of us (I'm looking at me) have too many instruments. As such, I often find myself thinking, if I could only keep one, which would it be? This answer changes from time to time, but I wanted to alter it slightly.

Consider the following hypothetical situation: due to the work of a nefarious ukulele hater, all of your instruments have been stolen. They are gone forever, with no hope of recovery. Your insurance company, due to unspecified reasons, will give you a blank check to buy one, and only one, instrument, with the following catch: you have to buy the exact same make and model as one of the instruments that was just stolen.

To ask it a different way, and closer to the title, which of your current instruments would you buy again, and why that one?

To be clear, you can buy other instruments later if you would like, and you could just use the insurance company's money to buy the most expensive one you want to replace, if that is the way you want to go. But I guess what I am driving at is, if you had to start your collection all over again, what is the first one you would get?
Click to expand...

I don’t play expensive instruments, my dearest is a concert that cost £150 but I don’t play it much if at all. Theses days I reach for the Soprano size and in particular a Kala KA-S against which I judge all other instruments. Another player might think that strange but my Kala isn’t as supplied but rather well set-up and fitted with bone nut and saddle and Martin M600’s. I made the nut myself and the strings are wide-spaced. That work makes a world of difference.

For me this Uke is ideal in many ways. It plays a lot better than I do, if it got stolen or broken I could buy another one easily enough (of course I’d have to put in modification and set-up work on it), no one expects its owner to be a star player, its taller frets suit my fingers and it (my one) sounds pretty good.

I’m not a rich man but I’m not that poor that I couldn’t afford something ten times more expensive than my Kala or win an auction on a Timms. Nice as such instruments are they come at a cost beyond money, I’m not worthy of a Timms or a Wonderhammer and would constantly worry about it getting damaged, lost or stolen. I’ve bought some dearer Sopranos blind too (say 50% plus dearer) and found that I don’t like their sound as much or their feel under my finger tips - they all got moved on.

Well, that’s my two cents worth. I hope that my alternative perspective is helpful to somebody.
 
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If I lost all my ukuleles I would make myself another cigar box uke and buy one HPL cheapie to keep the car. It's great to have a herd of two dozen assorted sopranos, but I could live without them.

John Colter
 
ukantor said:
If I lost all my ukuleles I would make myself another cigar box uke and buy one HPL cheapie to keep the car. It's great to have a herd of two dozen assorted sopranos, but I could live without them.

John Colter
Click to expand...

At the risk of temporary thread diversion why a cigar box and (‘cause I know what you make will be a good ‘um) please could I have the drawing details as a project to add to my ‘retirement’ list? (There are loads of plans out there but how useful an instrument they build is, no doubt, pretty variable.)
 
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