I'm gonna need a bigger monitor! :biglaugh:
However, HMS's videos are mostly VERY artistic finger-picking, very laid-back, mainly demonstrating the player's skill at voicing and mood and color.
Fact is, even a cheapie laminate uke would sound pretty awesome when finger-picked by the HMS pros, who are quite expert at instantly adjusting playing style to fit a given ukulele's strengths & weaknesses.
I'll likely get trashed for saying this but I wish HMS's videos were just a little more about the ukes and a little less about the skill & artistry of the talented HMS folks who play the ukes for those videos.
When I am shopping for a ukulele online, I want to get info about the instrument's intonation, its sustain, its volume, and its balance between highs, mids, & lows, and how it sounds when strummed as a rhythm instrument, as well as how it sounds when finger-picked as a solo instrument. However, HMS's videos are mostly VERY artistic finger-picking, very laid-back, mainly demonstrating the player's skill at voicing and mood and color.
Fact is, even a cheapie laminate uke would sound pretty awesome when finger-picked by the HMS pros, who are quite expert at instantly adjusting playing style to fit a given ukulele's strengths & weaknesses.
In other words, HMS's videos seem to be more about "look how beautiful this song is," instead of "listen to the strengths & weaknesses of this ukulele that you are considering buying."
Is anyone else still experiencing security error messages when trying to visit the new site? I am still having issues. :-/
Yeah, I LOVE listening to those guys play.
But I've often wished in the past when I was comparing ukes on that site that they would play the exact same thing on every instrument and that it was a combination of basic strumming and fingerstyle or maybe one song of each. That way you could hear the exact same songs on multiple ukes and you could compare the tone of those particular ukes to each other.
But that in no way takes away from those guys at HMS. As you said, they could probably take a Makala and make it sound better than anything I could play on a high-end K brand uke.
I think it's awful, but I imagine I'll get used to it in time.
Same. When it first came up, I actually thought their site was undergoing maintenance, and I was looking at a barebones version of their site. Their former site was fine as is. Just needed bigger images and a better favoriting system. I would love more pictures and sound samples, but HMS is already better (the best?) in that regard, and that doesn't require redoing the site.
With the new site, enlarging pictures changes to full screen on my computer. I hate it when sites do that. And as someone else mentioned, some of the formatting is wonky on mobile. Also, consolidating models onto one page seems worse. It's not terrible, but I used to be able to see what's available at a glance in the gallery without having to select an instrument. And the multiple models seems to make the page loading time longer. I'll get used to it, but besides bigger images, it doesn't seem better.
I really do appreciate the feedback here from the community. We had to redo the site from the ground up because the platform we were on was ending crucial security patches, which is most important to me.
One reason I went to only one listing for each model is that it will populate reviews and customer questions on one page. It’s always a give and take because I see advantages both ways. We added more detailed specs (some manufacturer given measurements we found to be off) and there is now the ability to add related accessories and a lot more information without hunting around the site or leaving that page. So hopefully off the bat, some aspects are better. The design will improve. I’m still learning this system.
But seriously, a sincere mahalo to all of you for the feedback. It’s always a work in progress and the emails we’ve gotten and what’s been written here has helped me find issues and plan our progress moving forward. Hopefully it becomes more and more useful and enjoyable. I’m super grateful for this community and just want to keep growing as a resource for you. Aloha
I appreciate the effort at improvement. Some changes certainly make it more user friendly, such as having "New Arrivals" as the first thing that one scrolls to.
Using this as feedback, Andrew, the main thing I miss is having the total number available when I click on a page (usually "Custom Builds") so that I immediately know if some have been added or sold (I know this is not entirely reliable).
Hoping you can reopen soon and that we can visit.