Do you buy with your eyes when you should buy with your ears and hands?

mikelz777 said:
I just had a grim thought earlier today but it made me laugh. I thought that even though I have the money to buy another uke (from the sales of two others) maybe I should hold off until the pandemic is over. If I came out on the wrong side of this thing they may need that money to help bury me! :D
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Nah. Just have the family build a pyre with the ukes you never bonded with and ask them to spread the ashes in Hawaii. Preferably in a koa forest.
 
Looks, Playability or Sound?

All three.

I have not purchased some great sounding tenors because I didn't like the way they looked.

I have purchased some great looking tenors, often against my better judgement, that were quite mediocre sounding. Or I disliked the way the neck felt.

Mostly, the tenors I have acquired, sound very good to great, they play easily, and I like the way they look very much as well.

I am a sucker for lovely wood grain and curl.
 
it's the looks that get me first. When I saw Baz reviewing the Bonanza Oreo, my first thought was, "I hope it's not too expensive." Yes, the looks get me, but that's just the first step. It must be a good brand and well-made. Unless I hear differently, I assume it will sound all right.
 
At the end of the day whilst looks attract we play for the sound. Having said that I like what I play to be presentable too, plain and workmanlike is fine and my preference over bling. So for me my first criteria is does it sound good enough, my second is what does it feel like in my hands, and my third is is it at least presentable and not too flashy. Of course your eye has to be drawn to an instrument but beyond that and in person I select in the above order, but from a distance that’s not possible and one has to get pictures and sound samples from wherever one can.

As they say, “never judge a book by its cover”. That’s true for Ukes too.
 
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I think I posted my gut reaction at first but now that I've read and re-read all the other great replies in this thread, I think it really boils down to two different but related topics.

1) When you're shopping (or not!) - what do you notice first? What attracts you? What causes you to pick up a ukulele?
2) When you're evaluating and considering a "commitment" - what factors are important? What makes you decide to KEEP a ukulele?
 
mikelz777 said:
I just had a grim thought earlier today but it made me laugh. I thought that even though I have the money to buy another uke (from the sales of two others) maybe I should hold off until the pandemic is over. If I came out on the wrong side of this thing they may need that money to help bury me! :D
Click to expand...

What you should do is put one or two expensive ukes aside for your family to sell to raise the money for your funeral. :D
 
dwizum said:
I think I posted my gut reaction at first but now that I've read and re-read all the other great replies in this thread, I think it really boils down to two different but related topics.

1) When you're shopping (or not!) - what do you notice first? What attracts you? What causes you to pick up a ukulele?
2) When you're evaluating and considering a "commitment" - what factors are important? What makes you decide to KEEP a ukulele?
Click to expand...

My point, exactly. I see the uke before I hear it. Online, they all sound good. I have a pair of 2" speakers, so I'm not going to base a purchase on the sound. A good uke is going to sound good. It may sound different from other good ukes, but that's okay. Unless it's really built badly, the feel doesn't concern me. I has a body and a neck. I can deal with that.
 
All of mine I purchased on line. For the first one my spouse said at least get one with a solid top. So that's what I did. The rest have been a combination of looks and sound. Spending a lot of time listening to as many recordings as possible. Of the 5 I have bought only one did not sound good to me. I sold that one. Doesn't mean it was "bad", I just didn't connect with the sound. IMO all of mine look great. So I guess I'm a sound guy first---looks second. Quality goes a long way for both.
 
Thank you Jerry for being a statistically relevant sample size all by yourself!
 
dwizum said:
Thank you Jerry for being a statistically relevant sample size all by yourself!
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Actually, I was surprised to find Jerry had company in the recent “how many ukes” survey. Three other UU members also have more than 50 ukes. I wonder if any of them come close to Jerry’s actually count, or if anyone has more.
 
rafter said:
Actually, I was surprised to find Jerry had company in the recent “how many ukes” survey. Three other UU members also have more than 50 ukes. I wonder if any of them come close to Jerry’s actually count, or if anyone has more.
Click to expand...

I am one of those in that count, but only on a technicality; it really won't be 51 until UPS drops one off tomorrow. But it was ordered, paid for, and shipped by the time I answered the poll, so I counted it. :)
 
I am a very simple person. I have an elite uke for re-entrant tuning and another for linear tuning. I do have one more uke on my bucket list. I want to get a stupendous baritone.

I don't have a nice car or cable television or anything else that requires payments. I am saving to bespeak an elite level baritone from someone like Jay Lichty or Beau Hannam. So, in terms of this thread, I don't need ears or hands. This ukulele will be a project overseen by a committee. The luthier will make sure that the ears and the hands are happy. My job is to make sure my eyes are happy.

I bring this up to elucidate the fact that the process of buying a uke isn't the same for everyone. If a person is going to the Guitar Center, then maybe he or she has to take care of every aspect of the purchase. But if the person goes for a transaction with a small business, then part of the process can be delegated to a competent craftsman.
 
Of course like many at first in buying a guitar, I wanted a quality, solid wood instrument. . . with some decent bling on it.

I bought that kind of thing. Yeah, bling's nice.

But in going further musically, I learned that I grabbed----and was mostly using --- the instruments that SOUND good.

So to me, bling or no, it's the sound that really really matters.

Bling's very secondary to construction and materials.
 
This thread on the new Kanile'a ukes featured in their broadcast this past Saturday offers some additional insight on how some members here view looks, price, and sound.

https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?148175-Kanile-a-Platinum-2021-and-new-D-Series

I would never consider an uke that I did not actively like the appearance of. I have a couple that I appreciate visually every time I walk past without playing. OTOH, I am often attracted to some that are "different" or striking in their appearance. That leads to a "click" to get more details including woods, scale, construction, manufacturer, price, and (if lucky) sound samples. If most or all of the boxes are checked, then I might have another one heading my way.
 
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