Almost all ukuleles from China come from only TWO factories?

[fordie55]

Having lived in China the last sixteen years, got a pretty good idea of what goes on.

However the saying goes something like this "people who have been to China six times write books. People who have been there fifty times will write an article in a magazine. Ask a person who has been there over 100 times and they know nothing"........................

i will tell you that the instruments are probably made in multiple factories concentrated in a region that makes most of all the wooden instruments coming out of China. That's the way it works. Most specialized industries are concentrated to gain efficiency of operations as well as copying the success of their neighbors. For example, all the socks in the world are made in Zhejiang and Christmas trees and ornaments in SuZhou.

In Shanghai all the music stores are clustered together in a five block area that must have 100 stores there all carrying the same stuff.

When I get back to Shanghai next week, will do some research and let people know where all the instruments come from. Should not be too difficult to figure it out.

 

[Tack]

Seems like there is a new ukulele company about every week, alot of johnny-come-lately's that are just into it for the money and know next to nothing about ukuleles.
This is including large corporations that have virtually unlimited resources compared to some of us smaller companies that got into it because we love the instrument. Without our loyal supporters, you guys could end up with the choice of just a few big McUke companies just out to make a quick buck and will drop that product when the popularity wanes. Consider that next time you want to buy a cheap uke from Walmart or it's musical equivelant.

Don't worry John, I'll run it out of my garage if I have to.

I believe both these statements and heartily endorse the sentiments expressed. Thanks Mike.

 

[Gmoney]

anyone tried one of the Zither Heaven ukes? They come in two sizes, regular and soprano but the soprano is 14" scale length and regular is 15". They come in Walnut or Cherry or Maple and are made of two pieces of wood hollowed out and they have nylon frets:

http://www.zitherheaven.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=ZH&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=UKR15-C

Huna, Uke Republic's Mike brought a couple to a Uke Jam sometime back & though they were interesting in the way any novelty item might be, the ones he had were woefully lacking in volume (probably partialy due to those THICK sides), playability, usability (the "tuners" were like drum keys) & generally lackluster. The one-piece neck is I believe maple & the frets were some sort of opaque plastic pressed into the fretboard. The "banjo" uke has a wooden "head/skin" making it sound anything BUT like any banjo uke you may have heard.

 

[merlin666]

Interesting 10 year old thread. Many uke brands have come and gone since then. I wonder if the trend there is like in other countries and the large factories have merged under one umbrella or if there is more entrepreneurship and the manufacturing landscape has become more diversified.

 

[Kenn2018]

As with most things, there isn't just one model that fits all companies.

You have the large "factory" production lines that produce generic ukes that wholesaler, distributor, dealer/sellers slap their brands on. Volume is the key here. Cheap. AliBaba, Amazon, Walmart.

There's the same sort of scenario but with the ukes made to the customer company's specs. A step up. Beginner kits.

Smaller companies that make ukuleles to spec for other brands. May produce their own designs to sell under their own label.

Cottage industries making specific parts for other brands. Tuners, necks, bridges, nuts, saddles, strings. Many of these are made by specialist companies. Some finishing may be outsourced. With final assembly done by the brand.

Tuners are usually made by independent suppliers. The ukulele company may put their own brand on them, or they may use unbranded generic tuners, or they may use tuners with the maker's brand on them because of the tuner brand's reputation for high quality tuners.

And combinations of the above. Kala, I am sure uses all of the various sourcing for their myriad of lines. from the bottom inexpensive instruments to the top of the hand made custom models and everything in between. There isn't one big monolithic factory where all of the parts are made and finished and assembled and shipped.

The Rebel Guitars and Ukuleles make ukulele parts for several of the higher end ukulele brands. They used to show several of them on the Rebel website until, I suspect, those companies asked them to take those references down. Opio was not the only brand of ukes they made. And I'm sure they supplied parts for many companies because their quality was so high. The same applies to guitars.

No one model applies to China or any other Country or Brand. It just depends upon the producer's production, distribution, marketing strategy. And the niches they fill.

 

[tm3]

Interesting 10 year old thread.

I concur, it is interesting. I wish that fordie55 had reported on what his eyes-on research indicated.

 

[clear]

It makes you wonder what happened to Fordie55. Did he make it back from Shanghai safely? What did he find out? Did he get arrested for asking too many questions? Is he in prison? Is he working in a ukulele factory? What happened to Fordie55?

You shouldn't ask questions in China about Norinco ukuleles. I know, it's a big factory and they make decent, if not very refined, ukes, but there are just things you shouldn't do there.

 

[Ziret]

It makes you wonder what happened to Fordie55. Did he make it back from Shanghai safely? What did he find out? Did he get arrested for asking too many questions? Is he in prison? Is he working in a ukulele factory? What happened to Fordie55?

Free Fordie!

Shave Chevy, too.

 

[Arik]

It makes you wonder what happened to Fordie55. Did he make it back from Shanghai safely? What did he find out? Did he get arrested for asking too many questions? Is he in prison? Is he working in a ukulele factory? What happened to Fordie55?

You know the first rule about building ukulele's in china, you can't talk about who's building the ukes in china! I Hope Fordie55 is ok...

Maybe I could inquire with my local city council person to investigate???

 

[Another Ukulele]

All ukes made in China come from only two factories.
So goes the premise of this thread.

Thirty years ago I worked for Del Monte and I can tell you that MANY caned peaches come from their factory
in Fowler/Selma, California.
Truck loads of peaches arrive, are dumped, washed, skinned, pitted, ‘halved’ and sent to a conveyor belt.
A line of twenty Q/A technicians are in each side of the belt, removing odd shaped or bruised fruit pieces. The rest flow down the line, into the cans which are then filled with sugar syrup, cooked in a retort, labeled with a Del Monte label and prepared for shipment.

Break time arrives, half the Q/A line goes on break, bruised pieces slip through
and they simply change the label from Del Monte to Safeway label, or whatever.

Full crew returns, label gets switched back to Del Monte. The line never stops and the process does not change.

Probably the same for ukuleles.

 

[Graham Greenbag]

I very much doubt that it’s just two factories but ‘badge engineering’ is common in lots of fields and has been so for many decades. Someone either specs a product and has a specialist manufacturer make it or buys one of their standard products and has their own name put on it. These specialist manufacturers sell to all over the world, if you picked up an instrument in say Italy or Germany you might well recognise it but be surprised to see some previously unknown to you name on the headstock.

Besides Uke I play another instrument. One supplier has all of their instruments made in China as stencil copies of successful North American and European instruments. He tried out half a dozen Chinese manufacturers before settling on one who he works with on QA and product development. The guys in China specialise in manufacturing stuff for the wholesale market, they are interested in volume, turnover and full order books; such mass manufacturers take their slice of the profits and are happy to sell their instruments for a decent percentage more than they cost to make.

Some years ago I read a report from someone who attended a NAMM show in the USA. Many of the Chinese manufacturers had stands there to promote their instruments and their products as items to be rebadged.

 

[ikimiki]

Some years ago I read a report from someone who attended a NAMM show in the USA. Many of the Chinese manufacturers had stands there to promote their instruments and their products as items to be rebadged.

Similar to 'whitelabel' products offered by software companies!

 

[badhabits]

Similar to 'whitelabel' products offered by software companies!

that's what the 'Amazon Basics' branded ukuleles must be...