Saw this on kickstarter. Thought I would post it up here and see what people think of it. Sounds alright to me. The guy is pretty low on his pledge right now, hopefully he gets it.
My issue is the flat neck design. How comfortable will that be to play is what I wonder. I might pull the trigger and hope it works out. If anything it will be a novelty. I love the base tuners by the way. very cool design.
I visited the website and asked Scott about the neck. He said the testers he showed it to had liked it.
I really like the tone I heard from the website and think it's a neat idea but I'll have to feel the square neck before I'll buy in. (Of course, I just bought a chocolate Dolphin so I'm in on the bottom rung along with my Harmony/Kay 1954 Airline and Lanikai LU-21c) so, there's that...
Doug
Yes, it does sound surprisingly good in the video. It makes me wonder why the Flea/Fluke never did an all plastic uke (or did they ever do that?). Seems that would be an easier path for a new all plastic uke, than to design one from scratch. I'll probably back the project. It sounds like an interesting project. Although, I'm not sure it will it get enough funding.
Molds and other tooling aren't cheap. I used to have molds made for fairly simple small parts (thumb nail sized) I remember them costing several thousand dollars back in the 1990's. So he's got 6 larger parts to mold and he's budgeting $65,000 for molds/tooling. Plus, you have to account for mistakes and rework. Then he actually will produce at least a 1000 or more of these. So, the costs seem reasonable.
thanks for the link. I figured I could reach people outside of the UU community (Yes there are people who play uke and have no idea what UU is)
Honestly, I would be surprised to have it by x-mas. For me that is fine. I really hope after he makes his first 1000 he can make it cheaper than the $150. If he can get it to $75, that would be amazing (Yes we paid $125, that is the price you pay for being first to get it, like iPhone people)
I'd rather pay $150 for a sure thing than $125 for a maybe.
If it's a successful idea, he can get funding from many traditional sources (Wall Street, venture capital funding, large and small local banks, credit union, private large-scale investors, mom and dad) and will do well.
A $25 savings over retail on an instrument that may never happen is quite a risk. Only each investor can determine the value of the $125 in their life (some, pocket change--some, it's next week's gasoline fund).
Looking forward to this gentleman showing everyone some ukuleles.
I'd rather pay $150 for a sure thing than $125 for a maybe.
If it's a successful idea, he can get funding from many traditional sources (Wall Street, venture capital funding, large and small local banks, credit union, private large-scale investors, mom and dad) and will do well.
A $25 savings over retail on an instrument that may never happen is quite a risk. Only each investor can determine the value of the $125 in their life (some, pocket change--some, it's next week's gasoline fund).
Looking forward to this gentleman showing everyone some ukuleles.
Not sure if you know how kickstarter works. In case you don't, if the pledged goal is not reached within the timelimit, everyone who backed the project will get their money back and you will have lost nothing. But maybe you meant the risk that you have to trust him that he really makes instruments with the money and doesn't go on a trip around the world with it?
But maybe you meant the risk that you have to trust him that he really makes instruments with the money and doesn't go on a trip around the world with it?