S.O.S. Calling all Ukulele players

I would like to my husband a nice Ukulele thats better than the toy he's trying to play now. I don't know where to go or what to even look for. I have gone to a few Ukulele sites but now I am more confused than I was when I began looking around :-?
What's your take on Flukes?

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-12-13 14:57 ]

A gift of a uukulele is truly a gift of love. Good going! My only Fluke experience is strumming Floratina's (did that come out right?). It seemed like a fine instrument with good action with fine tone and volume. I'm not sure where you live, but if it's close enough, check out McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. http://www.mccabes.com They have ukes of all styles and prices in stock with a knowledgeable staff to help you pick out the perfect one for your hubby. Good luck and have fun!

-Iuka Grogg

DawnTiki - I don't know how much you want to spend but here is the first place I would go http://www.kanileaukulele.com it's a family owned business in Hawaii. They're prices for ukuleles range from $78.00 to $3599.oo for a po'okela baritone 4-string. If that's more than you're looking for try http://www.maui.net the Bounty Music Hawaii Ukulele guide. Happy hunting, hope this helps.

DawnTiki~

Check out this thread. This is Shirley's shop (a fellow TC'er, and the uke player on the Smokin' Menehunes), and is real honest, an accomplished ukulele player, and will give you great advice on what you are looking for. As a matter of fact, as I type, she and Bong are having a ukulele gathering at her shop here in Huntington Beach. Do give her a call and let her know you are a fellow TC'er.

No, he's really playing a toy...poor guy. I bought him one from Hilo Hatties as a gag when we went to Hawaii a few years ago. He has been strumming that stupid thing ever since. It won't stay in tune...pretty sad! Ha! Thanks for all the help guys, I will check them all out. I've got a direction now :) I'm not looking for this to be a major investment piece. But I would like it to be a real ukulele, that will stay in tune through at least half of a song. I know someone who has a Fluke and is pretty happy with it. What to do? What to do? Thanks again.

On 2003-12-13 23:42, DawnTiki wrote:
What to do? What to do?

Talk to Shirley! Good idea, Sugarcaddy Daddy!

I'll be in Long Beach tomorrow. Shirley will be getting a call from me. Thanks

I found a Uke at a antique store, but it had what seemed to be monofiliment strings. I have seen this before to. Is this what kind of string are on a Uke? If not what should I look for when picking one out?

Sugar, Iuka, and others are completely correct. Shirley is an honest business person that WILL provide you with excellent advice as well as a VERY good price on a ukulele.

If you live a million miles away from anyone who sells ukes, I good place for info and advice is Jim Beloff's Flea Market Music website. Jim is the author of "The Book of Ukelele" and has several good instructional books and videos, plus songbooks.

The message boards there are full of advice on good ukes at different price ranges, and based on the advice there I ended up picking up a "Flea" uke made by the Fluke company from [url="http://www.elderly.com/highlights/ukulele.html"Elderly Instruments[\url] as an inexpensive ($120) backup for my $400 Kamaka uke (I'm nervous about dragging it around). It sounds almost as good as the expensive one but I don't care as much if I drop it or my 2-year old gets a hold of it.

Which one to get, of course, depends entirely on how much you want to pay. Real koa wood ukes are beautiful, but costly.

And remember, it's pronounced "oo-koo-lay-lay," not "you-ka-lale-lee." :)

I had quite the Day O Tiki yesterday. I really want to thank everyone for the ukulele advice. I went to see Shirley at Island Bazaar. She set me up with a VERY nice uke at a VERY nice price!
A super cool lady too! She had Luckydesigns T-shirts out and some of Purple Jades necklaces, I was excited to see them. Then since I was in the hood I dropped by Bamboo Ben's shop, I felt like some seedy stalker peeking into his shop thru the windows. I wish I could have gotten inside to get my mitts on a thing or two.
It looked like a tropical Santa's workshop, full of fun things to oogle. Then I went by Sam's Seafood...I didn't get to go in though :( drove by Java Lanes, then after dinner (by accident) we drove by the Tiki apartments BOT pg. 221 in Palos Verdes
....VERY, VERY cool place! I would love to see what they look like on the inside. I was really surprised to see so much Tiki in one day and most all of them by accident. Then when I got home at 11 PM, sitting on my porch was a little box with a the nicest christmas tree ornament inside from Purple Jade (Thank You Purple Jade :) ) it was the perfect Tiki ending to a perfectly Tiki day :)

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-12-16 10:12 ]