Best ukulele shops inside EU

Ukebyo · Apr 1, 2021

Hi,
I live in Finland and got used to ordering ukes for my students from a couple of British ukulele shops. Now, after Brexit, the costs have risen up quite a lot so I am asking where in EU to look for ukuleles.

So far I know of https://gute-ukulele.de which is reliable but they have sold out most of the ukes I'm looking for at the moment.
Ukeshop Barcelona https://ukeshopbcn.com is also a great place but where else should I look for good deals on solid wood ukuleles?

Seppo

Dohle · Apr 1, 2021

Gute Ukulele is my go-to store as well after Brexit. Uke Surfer Shop is another German uke shop that's supposedly good but I haven't ordered from them, at least not yet. They are on the expensive side however, but they're also the only shop in mainland Europe who's a Kamaka dealer. I've heard good things about Ukeshop Barcelona as well but you'd have to separately contact them for shipping info if you order outside of Spain or Portugal so that's a bit of a pain.

Even though the UK isn't in the EU anymore, World of Ukes still claims to only charge the listed price and Matt (the lovely fella who runs the place) deals with all the taxes and customs duties for you. I have one uke in delivery from him at this very moment so I can update on the buying experience when it arrives next week. I'll just say that if I don't need to hassle with customs at all then I consider that as incredible service. So far I've only paid for the uke and all messaging from DHL indicates that they will just deliver the uke to me. So far so good.

Ukebyo · Apr 2, 2021

Dohle said:
Even though the UK isn't in the EU anymore, World of Ukes still claims to only charge the listed price and Matt (the lovely fella who runs the place) deals with all the taxes and customs duties for you. I have one uke in delivery from him at this very moment so I can update on the buying experience when it arrives next week. I'll just say that if I don't need to hassle with customs at all then I consider that as incredible service. So far I've only paid for the uke and all messaging from DHL indicates that they will just deliver the uke to me. So far so good.

Thanks Dohle, that sounds amazing. Let me (and us) know how the delivery from Matt turns out. If he really pays for the taxes and customs for you it means that his profit has to be very small and your discount quite big?
And thanks for the Uke Surfer Shop -link as well. Never heard of them before. Kiitos kovasti.

Counter · Apr 2, 2021

The tax will be charged by the shipper on behalf of your country so unless World of Ukes pays you back afterwards then I don't see how it would work.

Dohle · Apr 2, 2021

Counter said:
The tax will be charged by the shipper on behalf of your country so unless World of Ukes pays you back afterwards then I don't see how it would work.

I didn't explain it completely thoroughly. Since anyone in the EU pays the price listed on World of Ukes, that price then includes the amount for the UK VAT which is 20%. Now, since Matt/World of Ukes is exporting the uke he doesn't really have to pay UK VAT, so instead he puts that 20% to covering the cost of the customs duty and VAT of the country where he is shipping the uke to. Unfortunately for him, some EU countries have higher VAT than 20%, plus he also has to pay the customs duty which luckily is only 3% where I live (probably EU wide). So essentially, he's taking a small hit on his profit margin while making sure the ease of service for EU customers stays the same bar some delays in shipping caused by Brexit. Again, if all goes smoothly I'd say that is phenomenal service from Matt. I'll report back how it goes next week.

UkingViking · Apr 3, 2021

Dohle said:
I didn't explain it completely thoroughly. Since anyone in the EU pays the price listed on World of Ukes, that price then includes the amount for the UK VAT which is 20%. Now, since Matt/World of Ukes is exporting the uke he doesn't really have to pay UK VAT, so instead he puts that 20% to covering the cost of the customs duty and VAT of the country where he is shipping the uke to. Unfortunately for him, some EU countries have higher VAT than 20%, plus he also has to pay the customs duty which luckily is only 3% where I live (probably EU wide). So essentially, he's taking a small hit on his profit margin while making sure the ease of service for EU customers stays the same bar some delays in shipping caused by Brexit. Again, if all goes smoothly I'd say that is phenomenal service from Matt. I'll report back how it goes next week.

Sounds complicated.
The thing with import and VAT is that one thing is the money, another is the fee you pay to be allowed to pay the duties, and the merch getting stuck in customs untill you do. For them to pay the duties, they would need to ship to an EU office, pay the duties and shop forward.

Anyway, good to know that they don't charge UK VAT on exports, double VAT would be a pain.

Dohle · Apr 3, 2021

UkingViking said:
Sounds complicated.
The thing with import and VAT is that one thing is the money, another is the fee you pay to be allowed to pay the duties, and the merch getting stuck in customs untill you do. For them to pay the duties, they would need to ship to an EU office, pay the duties and shop forward.

Well, I suppose literally DHL is paying the duties and VAT and just send a bill to the shop to cover their costs. I reckon handling all of that is much easier for a logistics company.

UkingViking · Apr 3, 2021

Dohle said:
Well, I suppose literally DHL is paying the duties and VAT and just send a bill to the shop to cover their costs. I reckon handling all of that is much easier for a logistics company.

Oh, that makes sense.

blueingreen · Apr 4, 2021

Here is also a nice selection

https://www.musikhaus-sedlmeyr.de

ukulelekarcsi · Apr 4, 2021

uked.nl has a lot of APC ukuleles, Portuguese solid wood ukes.
ukuleleplein.nl has mahilele, APC and lots of Flight ukes.
ukulele.nl has lots of Mahalo, Lanikai, Korala, Alic, Hudson, APC, Kala, Kamoa, Ohana ukes and very nice booklets
justescordes.fr in Brittany has Flea and Ashbury and great uke stands
palmguitars.nl has antique ukes (including old Martins)
galerie-casanova.com as well, in Paris
musique83.com has Kok'io, mahilele, Korala, but seems to be low on stock
Then there are some physical shops with no real webpresence, but I think these can keep you satisfied for some time

Dohle · Apr 7, 2021

Quick update. The shipment from World of Ukes arrived and the process really went as advertised. The only thing I had to do myself was send DHL some personal info and they completely took care of importing. The process was hardly any different compared to ordering something from within the EU. So, if you fancy something from World of Ukes, I can highly recommend ordering from there.

Ps. NUD coming soon.

smariat · Apr 8, 2021

Thank you for the update! This is really good to know as a fellow Finn.
It takes a while to financially recover from ordering one of Mim's ukes, but I like to think the setup and service was worth the fees.

Graham Greenbag · Apr 8, 2021

smariat said:
Thank you for the update! This is really good to know as a fellow Finn.
It takes a while to financially recover from ordering one of Mim's ukes, but I like to think the setup and service was worth the fees.

Shipping to Europe from the USA can be financially painful and to add insult to injury you’re charged VAT on it too. Shipping from the U.K. is going to be more expensive than it really should be and whilst I encourage our European friends to use World of Ukes I cannot help but think that Germany, France and even Poland will have specialist Ukulele shops. Mim has a well earned stellar reputation, but I find it hard to believe that there isn’t a shop nearer you that could give you a similarly good buying experience. Set-up is essential but if I can do a decent set-up job on a Uke then virtually anyone else can learn to do so.

Mivo · Apr 8, 2021

Graham Greenbag said:
cannot help but think that Germany, France and even Poland will have specialist Ukulele shops.

As far as I know, none of the ukulele-selling shops in Germany perform setups. "Gute Ukulele" in Berlin is probably the best store, but Andreas, the owner, doesn't do setup work. It's not needed for high end instruments, in my experience, but in the lower mid-range it's an added plus.

I recently learned that Thomann (big European mail order music store) does setup work for guitars and banjos when requested. I wrote to them and asked if this is indeed true, and yes, they have a workshop with luthiers. For guitars and banjos, they charge between €45 and €70. I don't know if they offer this for ukuleles as well, though. To request it, the customer needs to put the request in the comments field or contact Thomann by phone/mail ahead of the order.

Dohle · Apr 8, 2021

Yes, setup is definitely a factor. I don't know of any mainland European uke shops that do setups, at least not by default. There are some decent uke/music shops in Germany, France and Spain but some also don't deliver to all European countries. There's a good reason I've mostly preferred the UK-based shops.

And I will definitely refute that high-end instruments don't need setup. I've ordered a few high-end ukes from Gute Ukulele and I've had to do my own setup on all of them. I know that Andreas does have some luthier at his disposal so you might be able to ask him for a setup but, as I mentioned, it's not done by default. For me, it's not a big deal to have a go at the nut and saddle so I haven't asked him but for others it can be.

Mivo · Apr 8, 2021

The ukes I bought from Andreas/Gute Ukulele were set up perfectly from the factory, but it's possible I was lucky. (Pono baritone, KoAloha pineapple, KoAloha concert, Famous/Kiwaya concert, Farallon)

Luckily, I'm not in the ukulele-buying business anymore! For now anyway. Happy with the ones I got.

Best ukulele shops inside EU

Ukebyo

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Counter

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