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ezFolk Forums > Ukulele > General Ukulele > "Ukulele Shopping On The Big Island" or "Something Happend On The Way To The Volcano& |
| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
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| "Ukulele Shopping On The Big Island" or "Something Happend On The Way To The Volcano& | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Thu Jul 2nd, 2009 05:55 am |
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1st Post |
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slipinkramer Approved
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I have been an occasional lurker on this forum for some time. I just returned from a trip to Hawaii so I thought I'd register and submit my ukulele shopping experiences while there. Perhaps someone will find my long winded views useful or interesting... or, perhaps not! First a little history: While on Kauai in 1994, for my 10th year wedding anniversary, I stumbled across a high end tourist ukulele at some fancy-smancy gift shop. Made on Maui by A. Atwell, it was a solid Koa uke, very simply made with an old school Hawaiian look to it. It never played or sounded too good because it was not designed or built to sound good. It did yeoman's duty as my first uke and I learned to play the instrument on it. It was smashed to bits by a flying Teddy Bear when my daughter was 4 years old. Around 1995 or '96 I found a Martin Tenor in good condition hanging in a guitar shop in Carmel, CA. I paid the asking price of $275 for the Martin and the original paper shell case. I think the uke dates from the 1950s or '60s. Truly, there is nothing else like a Martin Tenor on the earth and it is a prized possession of mine for the rest of my life. At a sing along New Year's Eve party, some 10 years ago, some idiot jammed a microphone into the lower bout in an attempt to amplify my playing over the sound system. He left several dents in the finish. No real damage done, but enough to convince me I needed more ukes for parties, traveling, restaurants and bars, etc. A uke for every season, so to speak. Next came some good yard sale scores  , some good ebay scores  , some, not so good ebay rip offs  , and a new Flea  . 2 years ago I scored a new Samich UK-70 (really just a concert sized Oscar Schmidt, I think) at a local music store for $69 on close out. After fooling around with some modifications to the nut, a new custom made saddle insert and Aquila Nylgut strings, it has become one of my favorite players and sounds real good (I know its a total laminate box).Upon deciding to take a family vacation to The Big Island this year, I decided to do some extensive ukulele shopping there and buy myself a Hawaiian made Koa ukulele. I saved up and ear-marked a grand in “mad money” cash, that I took along to make a purchase. Long ago, I reached a point where all the Internet adds, opinions, web pages and blogs about Hawaiian ukuleles came to mean nothing to me since I had never had the chance lay hands on any of these ukes. They don't exist where I live in small town, USA. I decided to try and ignore all Internet based preconceptions and just play Hawaiian ukes, judging each instrument on its playability and its sound. These are both subjective things so I have, of course, favored ukes that play and sound good to me. I suppose a more web savvy poster would say YMMV. I tried out almost 100 ukes at 7 different retailers in Kona, Waimea, and Hilo and also some little guitar shops and even a couple of junk and furniture stores in the mountains. I played 4 string sopranos, concerts and tenors. I tried so many ukes who's Hawaiian names start with a “K” I simply lost track of them and just decided to go for what felt and sounded the best. I was amazed by the variation in sound from identical ukes straight off the music store wall. My biggest surprise was that I played a lot of Kamakas and none of them pleased me very much. Their build quality is superb! Their sound and responsiveness is just not my first choice (by far) and I sadly decided not to consider purchasing a Kamaka. Another surprise was that the Ko'olau ukes also disappointed me in their sound a bit; again, great instruments, just not my style. I put my hands on 2 concert KoAloha ukes that I found at 2 different stores in Hilo and Kona. Both were astonishing in their sound and feel. I'm convinced that KoAloha has there ukulele act together. Surprisingly, both concerts showed sloppy glue drops that were easily visible through the sound hole. What a shame I think that is. As poor as those clear beads of glue look, I'm telling you, the sound is not effected by it. I consider the KoAloha concert sound and playability to be simply superb! The KoAloha soprano is a very popular ukulele in Hawaii. I played lots of them. They all sound great, some a little different than others, but all sound great and, incidentally, I saw no build quality problems with any of the KoAloha sopranos. In Hilo, a clerk handed me a brand new soprano KoAloha Pikake and we started to jam on “You Belong To Me” (remember Steve Martin on the beach in The Jerk or the essential Lyle Ritz recordings). The Pikake model is almost identical to the standard KoAloha soprano but has a thinner matte finish, a slab flat fretboard and a little less fretboard over the sound board (no crown cut at the bottom). I jammed with the clerk for a few minutes and immediately knew I had found my ukulele. That little uke has a big, sweet and clear voice, just right in my opinion. The feel is perfect. The whole Pikake uke feels alive and responsive in my hands, not stiff and bright like some abusively live spruce tops I've played. The Pikake is simply the perfect Hawaiian ukulele, in my opinion. I bought this little gem on the spot. I was also most impressed by the sound, playability and build quality of every G-String ukulele I tried. I was totally unfamiliar with G-String before this shopping adventure. I now know that G-String has their ukulele act together in every way. Ultimately, I found a very lightly used G-String Concert Tattoo sporting a worn set of Hilo Black strings in a little mountain town store. I loved its playability and sound so I bought it with the included case, accessories and a new set of Nylgut concert strings that the previous owner had left in the case. I also played a lot of custom ukes made on The Islands by several master builders. Many were wonderful works of instrument art. All were out of my price range so I didn't dwell on any of them. None sounded or played as well as the KoAloha and G-String ukuleles I have described. So I spent my whole ukulele “mad money” budget on 2 ukes during a week of ukulele shopping on The Big Island and came home on the plane with 2 ukuleles rather than 1, as I had anticipated. I have observed that the best ukes for me are not necessarily the most expensive or most highly touted models. I now know that I'm unlikely to obtain a superior ukulele, for me, without putting my hands on them all. And finally, the snorkeling and volcano crater were great fun too  .
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