Why do we accept such cheap junk ukes on the market

bazmaz said:

Steve - perhaps not - but a couple of important points here that informed my blog post

1. The uke was being sold as an 'instrument' Was in a music section in a store, and in the box came a booklet showing how to tune, hold, etc - also with a chord chart. That said to me they were on the bandwagon.

2. The makers name comes with a tagline of 'Quality Musical Instruments'

3. The post wasn't meant to single this one out - I am seeing more and more of them. Cheap badly made ukes in a far eastern factory, and stores wanting to get on said bandwagon just ordering a load and getting a new name screen printed on the headstock to capitalise on the boom.

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4. It had a label that said it was an instrument! "Acoustic Guitar," IIRC

Steve I agree totally.

Still not an excuse for making something that is physically defective

Well yes Pootsie, though all the other packaging was very much ukulele. Was probably originally touted as a 'toy guitar' but back to bandwagons again! It's certainly uke centric in every other way - tropical flower on the box, ukulele history on the manual it included.

Either way though - the store is now selling this as a ukulele. It is not even a 'musical instrument' in any way!

I bought a $20 uke for my nephew's 5th birthday...about 8 years ago(???). He loved it. He strummed the strings, beat the dog with it, dragged it through the backyard, etc. That's who they're meant for, and how they're meant to be treated. I bought it at Sam Ash, and the guitar department manager made it sound like a dream (he was a ukulele and mandolin fanatic). The kid stayed interested in music, and now plays French horn in the school band. Buying a kid a serious instrument means leaving it at home, getting scolded for not taking care of it, etc. In other words, they could very well hate it in no time at all.

I used to have a bike shop, and we didn't carry cheap adult bikes. We did carry very affordable, but well built kid's bikes. Prices began at around $79 for a tricycle, and $129 for a small bicycle. We did get plenty of Sears bikes brought to the shop to be repaired, but usually to be reassembled properly right after being bought. We had a repair menu behind the counter, and the price for reassembling a Sears or Huffy bike was $100. Basically, we were saying they weren't worth the effort. They were also dangerous to ride. This was back in the 1990's, and I've noticed that cheap bikes seem to be made a bit more sturdy, and have much better brakes than before. Lawsuits will have that effect, along with cheaper labor costs: China, Malaysia, and Vietnam, rather than Taiwan and Japan.

My son is our only child, and he was wild about violin at around age 6, so we spent a couple hundred dollars. He eventually had a rather expensive 4/4 violin (they're sized according to the child's size), and he played in the school orchestra until he graduated high school. Many of the other kids never had a decent violin, and cheapies sound awful. A good bow goes a long way as well. I never asked the parents why they bought cheap violins for a student that was still playing when they reached high school, so no idea there. I do know a couple of the kids had very expensive violins, and I should mention this was a string orchestra, and not the school band. I have four brothers and sisters, and even though my father made a great deal of money, my clarinet cost about as much as Sears suit. I was on the golf team in high school, and you don't even want to picture what my clubs looked like! If I had nine clubs, they were from eight different manufacturers. I didn't even have golf shoes!!! Needless to say, my balls were generally scrounged from what was laying around the golf course, and in varying states of being worn out. This was the varsity golf team!!! We did go to expensive restaurants several times each week, however.

Damn it! I'm buying something from Chuck Moore!!! Does he have a phone out in the jungle?

stevepetergal said:

I've seen these kind of things at the party supply stores. They're (the ones I've seen) intended to be party favors at Hawaiian-themed parties. ......

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They should be used as pinatas!

Jamie

bazmaz said:

no need to apologise Jane - I agree with you all the way.

It really irritates me when I see things like this I saw today (on an unrelated discussion I was having). Along the lines of 'I would really like a <insert uke maker here that is based in the USA> but they are just too expensive. Said ukes were not all that expensive, but certainly expensive compared to the one the subject of this thread.

It kind of creates a whole other issue - it makes the real price of anything good look hyper expensive because the cheap is so ridiculously cheap.

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This exactly! I have a very talented seamstress make dresses for me; these cost around $80 each. A coworker recently complimented me on one, and asked where she could get one and what they cost. She reacted with shock when I told her, and told me she never spends more than $40 on a dress, and usually less than $20.

I'm far from wealthy, but to me, $80 doesn't seem all that extravagant. It just means I buy one or two rather than ten or twelve. Come to think of it, that's my uke philosophy right there: a few really nice ones, made in USA, and I'm satisfied.

JamieWG said:

They should be used as pinatas!

Jamie

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Or used to whollop pinatas!

I'm hearing you, Katysax. My parents couldn't afford a Buffet clarinet for me when I started, so they got the best wooden instrument they could afford, an ancient Normandy. Played, but goodness, it was tough. I played that thing for five years and then got a much better instrument, which led me to my current forever clarinet, a Buffet R-13. I've had many children come to me, wanting to quit band because they "aren't good at it" and 9 times out of 10, it was the instrument. More than 9 times out of 10.

What kills me, is people will make sure to have the best computer, cell phone, automobile, expensive purse and all the bling they can drape on themselves, and then not want to pay for a decent instrument for their child. It is absolutely the worst introduction you can give a child, into the world of music. Here is a p.o.s., enjoy your music/band/ukulele class. It is crazy.

Another real shame is, there are a lot of very nice instruments out there that are not expensive. A good, used instrument is so much better than a new, crappy one. A blem that plays in tune is also a lot better. If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't true.

katysax said:

I think cheap instruments in childhood are at the root of my Instrument Acquisition Syndrome. I had a cheap, but playable clarinet, and was much better on my friend's Buffet. People who don't play instruments really don't understand the differences.

When I was 14 my parents bought me a Zim Gar guitar. It was awful. The neck bowed about an inch and a half by the time I threw it out. I saved my money for a year to buy a Gibson.

A few years ago I decided to learn flute and bought a cheap $100 flute off of Ebay. It was OK for about a week, then one day I was playing it and something went "sproing". Keys literally went flying off the instrument. I threw it away and bought a Yamaha.

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Oh, and I shudder to think what a $100.00 flute would sound and feel like!!!

Oy yoyoy!!!! I had a parent get huffy with me when they got an internet instrument that had different keys and was based on a different system - like some East German thing. I was told that I was responsible for teaching that child to play that instrument even if it was based on a system we don't use in the US. Not to mention, the instrument was horribly made. Keys of tin foil. I somehow found a fingering chart for the thing, gave it to the kid and helped as much as I could, but I couldn't even play the thing. Guess how long the kid lasted in band...

OldePhart said:

I knew the owner of the only music shop that handled band instruments in the last small town we lived in. He got to the point that he wouldn't touch any of the cheap eBay crap for repairs. The last straw for him was when a woman threw a complete hissy fit when he explained to her how much it was going to cost to fix the POC horn she had bought her kid...she'd bought it on eBay and actually expected him to fix it for nothing...ranted about how her husband was a lawyer and she'd have his store for not serving the community...then flounced out the door to her luxury car and burned rubber out of the parking lot. All in front of her 12-year-old kid. A real parent-of-the-year candidate, for sure.

John

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Ukejenny said:

Oh, and I shudder to think what a $100.00 flute would sound and feel like!!!

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A piece of plumbing pipe with articulating stoppers an it .....at a guess.....but I have never tooted a flute......

CJ

But we still seem to be having a go at people who buy the things.

If they were not available to be bought then you would not be having this conversation........

I may be really naive ...a champagne socialist ...or an eternal optimist
but surely the problem is with the dealer manufacturere....if these things are such Sh***

Why are they being sold ?

Where is the morality in a dealer selling something that he/she KNOWS to not be what it is billed as .." a quality playable instrument "

These are the people who will stand on You Tube and say I am an expert ,Trust me ....blah blah....it is legal fraud in my book.......

If these dealers are going to sell tat then here's a radical and desperately radical at that concept:

SAY SO in the blurb in large shiny writing

....THIS IS A BEGINNERS INTRODUCTORY TOOL ...IT IS NOT A VALID EXAMPLE OF A UKE ....BUT IT PLAYS A BIT LIKE ONE AND IS ONLY LESS THAN A TENNER....IT IS NOT A LONG TERM INSTRUMENT BUT A FLAVOUR OF WHAT CAN BE HAD . LITTLE JOHNNY DO NOT PART WITH YOUR HARD EARNED POCKET/NEWSPAPER ROUND BLACKMAIL MONEY UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO ACCEPT THAT THIS IS SUB-ENTRY LEVEL AND REALLY ONLY SHOULD BE BOUGHT BY SOMEBODY WHO WANTS TO TAKE IT TO THE BEACH AND AFTER THE BEACH BARBECUE OR EVEN AS PART OF THE BARBECUE......
loud and clear......no problem.....

for me it is the that dishonesty that bites...

look these things have their uses ....I absolutely love "Red" my £15 Lazy Uke ....

You can buy cheap Ukes when on holiday ...why take the good one?....it gives you an excuse to go to a music shop and scope out the toys on offer ...and then you have something to play with for the fortnight (Two weeks to my US compadres). Throw one in the boot or the passenger seat...though I bet Old Bill would have something to say about it if you were Formbying away in stopped traffic...you can even scoop poop...though I personally would not want to play it immediately afterwards ..to be fair.

But give the learners beginners and kids a break...tell them at least what they are buying , and stop trying to pass them off as quality goods .......

I in general, avoid buying crap because if you buy the cheap thing it will break and then 3 of them later you could have just bought 1 good one. Sometimes it means going much longer without, and waiting for it longer then you would if you just got the cheap one but its worth it to wait and save. our society likes instant gratification and cheap manufactured goods make it even easier then before to have that.

Truer words were never spoken....I get so fed up with people who want something great for little or nothing, and complain about prices constantly! either you can afford to play music, or you can't....sorry, but it's that simple! I bought two of my friends Dolphins, because they wanted to play, but had no money....but first, I made sure it was a good purchase by playing my own Dolphin...before I loaned it out...permanently...ha ha

Nickie said:

... either you can afford to play music, or you can't....sorry, but it's that simple!

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I don't feel it is that simple. One of the best students I ever taught got a lot of financial help moving up to a professional clarinet, the one that took her to college on a music scholarship. Think of a music room full of ukuleles, or violins, or Orff instruments... for some of the kids who will touch those instruments, that will be it, the one chance for them to get to do something like that.

JamieWG said:

They should be used as pinatas!

Jamie

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LOL - That's the best thing I've read all day!

Ukejenny said:

I don't feel it is that simple. One of the best students I ever taught got a lot of financial help moving up to a professional clarinet, the one that took her to college on a music scholarship. Think of a music room full of ukuleles, or violins, or Orff instruments... for some of the kids who will touch those instruments, that will be it, the one chance for them to get to do something like that.

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I stand corrected, jenny...I wasn't including kids in my comment....they're usually innocent in all this....

Nothing wrong with inexpensive ukes..I have a rogue soprano for 24.95 and love it...but I do agree there some cheap ukes are unfixable..some can be for toys for kids and unfixable or unplayable
also some are inexpensive just for those on tight budgets....I would say try to change the strings and do a set up...of course some are not fixable...I have this deal on craigslist for like 24 ukes and hula impliments for get this 75.00 without tuners...sounds like a deal, the guy said they can be used for teaching kid...yeah right.. do your homework and pick the most popular brands in your budget with good reviews, I have a hello kitty 29.99 and changed the strings...not the best but playable...as you get better, you will learn how to even make a cheap uke sound okay...when I first started, I always blamed the uke...Never pass any uke you can try before you buy...he he I am not a uke snob

Why do cheap ukes exist? For the same reason that WalMart rules the world.

First I admit I am an instrument snob. My problem with low quality is I know we all get use to what we hear. I want my kids to hear the better sounds to develop their ear. I really don't want them to get use to a toy uke and think it sounds good! I want them to know/hear the difference. I also don't want them running around with it because I want to teach them that instruments are not toys. It is never to young to instill that in a child.

No offense to anyone who does the opposite, I just thought I would give my reasoning for not buying them.

stringy said:

First I admit I am an instrument snob. My problem with low quality is I know we all get use to what we hear. I want my kids to hear the better sounds to develop their ear.

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:agree: - This, exactly! For many years I was completely happy if my guitars were within 10-cents at the first fret and I considered 5-cents really good. I had friends with better ears and they would sometimes talk about how out of tune some of my chords were. The worst "offender" in this regard was a blind friend with perfect pitch and I figured he was just too picky.

Then, this amazing thing happened. I bought a set of nut files and started setting up my guitars. Today, if a string pulls 10 cents sharp at the nut it drives me absolutely bonkers. But, I also now can tune by ear more accurately than with a tuner (provided the room is quiet). I can hear and figure out chords much more easily (though still not as well as I'd like) and so on.

John