Wil Buying an Expensive Uke Make Me Abandon What I Already Have?

[Voran]

Nopety nope nopes. I love my Snail but I don't take her with me when I play outdoors.

 

[Graham Greenbag]

The recent sale of a Rebel soprano had me on the cliff. To put it simply, it was excruciating. I could have but didn't for fear of ruining all the happiness I enjoy with my "lesser" instruments. None are worshipped brands but they all have good intonation, play easily, and sound good to me. Each has a personality and purpose.

Any that didn't, or couldn't be made to, are gone.

‘Will buying an expensive instrument make me abandon what I already have?’

Just because an instrument is more expensive it isn’t necessarily better than one that you already have or, to your ears, any better sounding. You might end up not playing the new one much at all and keep with good sounding favourites that give you pleasure to play, my most expensive instrument is nice but it’s not the one that I normally reach for.

Musicians, well the better and financially able ones, tend to migrate up the instrument quality ladder. Due to their expertise whatever instrument a professional musician plays will sound good but they gain a necessary edge on their competitors by playing high quality instruments and high quality stuff tends to be expensive. Such people sell good instruments and buy excellent ones, if they are going to succeed in their (competitive) profession then they have to have to play the best and certainly not be held back by their instrument(s).

As amateur players our needs and choices can be different. I don’t have professional skills and can choose to play what gives me pleasure; whilst I want things to be good I don’t overly obsess about getting as near to perfect sound, projection, intonation and volume as is humanly possible and I don’t fuss too much about looks. Of course some earlier instruments are now gone, but gone either because they weren‘t really an asset worth retaining or to free up space. Maybe I do occasionally let some reasonable instruments go too, ones that I’ve tried out but don’t meet my needs, there are always personal preferences and preferences is why we love our old favourites.

There are those people who when they play an old fashioned record hear the scratches and there are others who hear the music, I go for hearing the music and ignore the scratches. Some people are the same with instruments, but as an amateur you can choose to hear the music, ignore the rest and enjoy what you have.

 

[SurferJay]

I don't have anything really expensive either but I did purchase a Flight Carabao (solid wood with Misi pickup) which sounds 10x better than any of my other Ukes and is more comfortable play... But I'm more precious about it and only bring it out to play if I'm going to set everything up and play for an hour or so.... Where as my previous Uke Cordoba Tenor I'll literally leave around my house and pick it up and play anything on it for five minutes (even percussive stuff).

I'm after a Guitarlele now

 

[PeteyHoudini]

Since 2006, I have bought many ukes. I was looking for "my sound" and I eventually found it in a jangley Martin S-0 soprano in 2011 in Berlin. I had never thought about buying expensive ukes ever. I was just looking for my sound. Just look for the sound you want, expensive or not.

My GF at the time noticed with cheaper ukes, that I kept spending most of my time tuning them after each song.

I have not played a Martin uke for 3 months and it is literally in tune after that.

I'm back on the uke scene and will do more videos soon. My hospital stay and accident has made me realize how much I love this group. Cheerio, - pf

 

[merlin666]

Where does all this guilt come from about enjoying your hard earned discretionary income by buying a nicer uke to enjoy?

As long as you are not spending all the rent money and food money, you can buy another uke and the sky wont cave in.

If you don't have room for the next uke, either be happy with what you have, or just get rid of one.

Ask yourself why you shouldn't be looking at a better instrument, save the money to buy it, and don't be held hostage by what you read in social media all the time. You are allowed to spend your hard earned discretionary money on stuff that will make you happy, you do not have to leave it in a bank being ravaged by inflation and doing nothing for you. There is no shame in working hard and accumulating enough spare cash to buy a very nice ukulele for yourself, even if you are the planet's worst ukulele player.

Rich people who take a holiday every six months to Hawaii never seem to ask if they will regret spend $10K+ on the next holiday, they just make some plans and work out how to pay for it and go. They don't rate how well they have a holiday, they just have a holiday, if someone tells them they don't know how to holiday, they don't pack up and go home, they just keep enjoying themselves. Why do we have to have all this materialistic stuff about prices and buying the next one on UU?

Obviously, you should not be spending rent and food money on ukuleles, unless you are a paid performer and they are like a tool for your work and you use them to generate the income to pay the rent.

We are all constrained by budgets, we all need to take care of our money, but if you do the work you deserve the reward, don't make up reasons to not take the reward after you have done all the hard work.

I think your perception of rich people vacations are way off. Sure you can spend a lot of money like 10k for a family but many people travel there for a lot less. There are cheap flights from the US and very affordable accommodations even camping, and you can get around on the bus and buy food in supermarket. I always meet people there who were visiting on less than 1k for a week for a couple.

 

[don_b]

Making me do it right now!

 

[ripock]

A lot depends on your personality and the reason for getting more expensive ukes. For example I gave a forum member a Kala baritone I had even though there was nothing wrong with it (aside from it being a super boring cedar). I did this because I had bespoken a really nice custom baritone and I knew that I would never touch the Kala ever again. And I did the same thing with my tenors previously.

In that sense expensive ukes save money. Expensive ukes are expensive and it takes squirreling a little money every paycheck for a few years to afford one, but once you have it, you don't want anything else...at least that's how it worked for me. And my personality.

 

[Nickie]

Since 2006, I have bought many ukes. I was looking for "my sound" and I eventually found it in a jangley Martin S-0 soprano in 2011 in Berlin. I had never thought about buying expensive ukes ever. I was just looking for my sound. Just look for the sound you want, expensive or not.

My GF at the time noticed with cheaper ukes, that I kept spending most of my time tuning them after each song.

I have not played a Martin uke for 3 months and it is literally in tune after that.

I'm back on the uke scene and will do more videos soon. My hospital stay and accident has made me realize how much I love this group. Cheerio, - pf

We love you too Petey! We missed you.

 

[Kaelrie]

The recent sale of a Rebel soprano had me on the cliff. To put it simply, it was excruciating. I could have but didn't for fear of ruining all the happiness I enjoy with my "lesser" instruments. None are worshipped brands but they all have good intonation, play easily, and sound good to me. Each has a personality and purpose.

Any that didn't, or couldn't be made to, are gone.

I think you're looking at it the wrong way. If a new uke does make you abandon your older "lesser" ukes, it's because you wanted it to, because you enjoy the new one just that much. You'll literally enjoy the new one even more than you enjoy the ones you have now, if that's what happens.

And if that doesn't happen, then you still love the old ones too. There is no downside here.

 

[rustydusty]

When I upgrade (rarely with the ukes) I don't really play with my old ukes anymore. I was worse with the guitars though, buying one every couple of weeks just to try something different...

 

[PeteyHoudini]

In that sense expensive ukes save money. Expensive ukes are expensive and it takes squirreling a little money every paycheck for a few years to afford one, but once you have it, you don't want anything else...at least that's how it worked for me. And my personality.

Totally agree, my friend.

 

[PeteyHoudini]

We love you too Petey! We missed you.

Thanks! I'm back!