mikelz777
Well-known member
I was at my all-time high of 5 ukes when I got a strong itch to get yet another. I certainly didn't need it and if I scratched that itch I'd be spending north of $400 so I couldn't take that decision lightly. I decided to put myself into a "cooling off" period of undetermined length to see if I really wanted the uke or if it was just a whim or an impulse. Two of my 5 ukes were pure impulse buys. One I bonded with, the other I didn't. To make room for a possible future purchase I sold the impulse uke I didn't bond with.
The next step in my cooling off period was to sell off a bunch of my stuff to see how I felt about the uke when I had the actual cash to buy it in hand. Surprisingly, that only took about a month. Now I had enough to buy it and I still wanted it but..... another uke enters the picture! I saw a resonator uke I suddenly fell in love with. It was beautiful to look at, the sound samples online sounded nice and it was cheaper than the other uke I was looking at. It was also different from everything else I had so it seemed like a logical addition. I was already leaning toward abandoning the other uke but I decided I'd better do some hands on research. First of all, it was a tenor and I'm an all-concert scale guy. I wanted to go into a music store and play some tenors for a while to see if I could get on board with the larger scale. (I sold a tenor years ago that I didn't bond with but it was mostly due to looks and feel of the uke itself.) I also hoped to play a resonator uke to see if I liked it. I played several tenors and decided that the scale wouldn't be a problem. They did have a concert reso so I was able to play that too. It was just OK. It wasn't really lighting my fire. I didn't dislike the sound but I didn't like it enough to want to buy one. It looked like the reso was out and the other uke was back in.
While I was there I tried out some sopranos just for the heck of it. Early on in my ukulele journey I had rejected sopranos as being too small for me to play comfortably. Today was different. With several years of experience under my belt, the sopranos were easier and more comfortable for me to play. I didn't know what I was missing! Now this trip to the music store has me browsing the internet for sopranos!
I guess the lesson in this story is that UAS is an insidious thing and it evolves over time. What we think we want and have to have today may be something totally different tomorrow. Now I have to put myself into a soprano cooling off period to make sure this isn't just another impulse thing!
The next step in my cooling off period was to sell off a bunch of my stuff to see how I felt about the uke when I had the actual cash to buy it in hand. Surprisingly, that only took about a month. Now I had enough to buy it and I still wanted it but..... another uke enters the picture! I saw a resonator uke I suddenly fell in love with. It was beautiful to look at, the sound samples online sounded nice and it was cheaper than the other uke I was looking at. It was also different from everything else I had so it seemed like a logical addition. I was already leaning toward abandoning the other uke but I decided I'd better do some hands on research. First of all, it was a tenor and I'm an all-concert scale guy. I wanted to go into a music store and play some tenors for a while to see if I could get on board with the larger scale. (I sold a tenor years ago that I didn't bond with but it was mostly due to looks and feel of the uke itself.) I also hoped to play a resonator uke to see if I liked it. I played several tenors and decided that the scale wouldn't be a problem. They did have a concert reso so I was able to play that too. It was just OK. It wasn't really lighting my fire. I didn't dislike the sound but I didn't like it enough to want to buy one. It looked like the reso was out and the other uke was back in.
While I was there I tried out some sopranos just for the heck of it. Early on in my ukulele journey I had rejected sopranos as being too small for me to play comfortably. Today was different. With several years of experience under my belt, the sopranos were easier and more comfortable for me to play. I didn't know what I was missing! Now this trip to the music store has me browsing the internet for sopranos!
I guess the lesson in this story is that UAS is an insidious thing and it evolves over time. What we think we want and have to have today may be something totally different tomorrow. Now I have to put myself into a soprano cooling off period to make sure this isn't just another impulse thing!