Guitar Center visit

So I walk into Guitar Center to get a simple capo, and of course I end up wandering over to the acoustic guitar room. Many ukes. mostly what you would expect from guitar center: Lanikai, Fender, Luna?, and aNueNue?..... the nue nue concert sounded nice but i could tell it was mostly machine made. nice tuners though. The luna's are just pure crap i won't even name the reasons (you already know them). The Lanikais were nice but most of them were unreachable on the wall being their "top of the line". but they looked nice and i played the soprano nato which was definitely worth $59. They had a Mitchell concert (mahogany gloss), this thing was built like a tank, i could have hammered nails with it, nice thick neck and body, but it did have Hilo black strings on it which i personally think is a mistake. Now on to the Fender tenor.....it said all koa but i was suspicious, it didn't look like the koa WE are used to (made in indonesia). abalone purflings and rosette. It sounded AWESOME (no pickup), the g string buzzed a little and the action needed adjustment BUT it had a good full robust sound, it was almost like having a baritone tuned GCEA. the tuners were a little sub-standard but passable. $200. ....I will say this in guitar center's defense, they keep all the acoustic instruments in a nice wood climate controlled room where you can strum anything on the wall. I played around for 45 minutes until i started feeling like i was taking advantage. If you guys are ever bored, spend some time there, it's fun to play other ukes.

Just be careful when you test instruments in those wooden rooms with all the instruments on the wall. They're designed so that you play one instrument and you get beautiful sympathetic vibrations from all the others. It's really overwhelming sometimes, as it sounds like you've gone to Heaven with every strum. If you find an instrument you really like, be sure to check it out in another room before plunking down your credit card. I'm just sayin'....

Good to know, I sort of knew i was getting best possible acoustics in a room like that. Like dim lighting and skinny mirrors in clothing stores. However, I would never buy a mass-chinese-manufactured ukulele from a chain store unless they were giving them away. Like I said before there were a couple nice-sounding ukes but they all had major physiological flaws. (buzzing, crap tuners, laminates, no string selection from store etc..). These ukes looked nice and sounded OK but were for beginners all.

bnicholas26 said:

Good to know, I sort of knew i was getting best possible acoustics in a room like that.

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But isn't that the main point of your post? Good room, sympathetic acoustics, decent instruments, all for the price of walking through to the back room.

Sounds like a great way to spend an hour or so every once in awhile. And if someone else walks in, you can lay some ukevibe on 'em.

I've had many mini jams on guitar and ukulele in the acoustic room at the San Marcos, California Guitar Center. I recently had a mini jam at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California when a young college student started playing along when I was jamming Led Zeppelin's "Rock 'n Roll" on an acoustic guitar in their interactive room. We played about a half dozen songs together, impromptu, to an audience that grew to about 15 before it was over. Ric

ricdoug said:

I recently had a mini jam at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad

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That's where I first heard you play. It was like fertilizer for the uke seeds I didn't know I had.

Papa Tom said:

Just be careful when you test instruments in those wooden rooms with all the instruments on the wall. They're designed so that you play one instrument and you get beautiful sympathetic vibrations from all the others. It's really overwhelming sometimes, as it sounds like you've gone to Heaven with every strum. If you find an instrument you really like, be sure to check it out in another room before plunking down your credit card. I'm just sayin'....

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Yes that is very true!! Take the guitar or uke out of the acoustic room to another area and then play it.

Well, your Guitar Centers have a decent selection! The ones aroung me only have two or three ukes. It's terrible, I live so far from any ukulele civilization!!