Regarding Collings ukuleles

The last poll asked about the new Collings ukuleles, specifically the entry model UC-1 concert ukulele. I had put up a poll about the approach of various guitar companies' approach to the ukulele, and I had lumped Collings with the likes of Breedlove and SCGC as building very high end custom ukuleles. Well, I think it would be more accurate to put Collings in the same category as Martin now that we have more information about how the Collings ukuleles will play out in the marketplace. By the way, I'm fairly surprised that such a large percentage of voters (almost half) didn't know who Collings was. I guess I didn't know much about them myself but checking around the 'net leads me to believe Collings is one of the more highly regarded guitar builders today. They are more or less positioned between the giant guitar builders such as Taylor or Martin and the sole custom shop luthier. They don't crank out a ton of instruments per year but apparently their quality is very high.

According to what I've gathered so far from some of the Collings' dealer websites (Collings website has yet to include a product page for their ukes), there will be 3 models available. The UC-1, UC-2, and UC-3:

-UC-1 (list $1150): Basic mahogany uke similar to a Martin style 0 of the old days. No bindings. Martin style headstock. Satin finish.
-UC-2 (list $1600): Mahogany or Koa with body bindings. Collings "haircut" headstock". Gloss finish.
-UC-3 (list $2600): Fancy koa ukes with headstock, body & fingerboard bindings . Collings "haircut" headstock. Possibly varnish gloss finish.

This is fairly similar to how Martin divided up their lineup in the old days with the various styles (0, 1, 2, 3, 5). Given that Collings has built a pretty good reputation of quality for themselves, these might have a chance to be the modern day "vintage Martin" ukes in the future.

In terms of pricing, my reaction to the $1k street price of the UC-1 is that it is actually something I would consider. $1k is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, and with a LoPrinzi model A concert costing about $500, the Collings UC-1 appears to be pretty expensive. But if you compare it with say a Kamaka concert, which usually runs about $800+, it became a little bit more reasonable. It is a handcrafted ukulele by a highly respected guitar company, and compared to the Martin re-issue style 3 sopranos, which costs in excess of $1500 and are also made by a respected guitar company, the cost of these Collings concerts seem to be within reason, at least to me. This, of course, assumes that these Collings ukes have great sound quality. Based on the reputation of their guitars and mandolins, and also comments from musicguymic, who has a couple of these, I think it should be safe to assume that they are at least very good, if not outstanding.

The UC-2 & UC-3 models seem pretty expensive at MSRP of $1600 & 2600 respectively. But they more or less correspond to the Kanile'a K-3 & K-4 models, which are in fact roughly in the same price brackets. The Kanile'a K-4 has more blingy pearls & abalone, but the UC-3 appears to have a varnish finish, so the cost for those might be a wash. To be sure, I think these higher model Collings are REALLY expensive ukes, but perhaps not as outrageous as they initially appeared.

I think what Collings is doing with ukes is closing in on what I would personally like to see good guitar builders do. That is to provide ukuleles that compete in the price bracket of the Hawaiian builders such as Kamaka. The Collings UC-1 is a bit north of the Hawaiian makes in terms of price, but they are roughly in the same ballpark. I believe these will be a hit if they put the "haircut" style headstock on the UC-1 (their plan is to use the Martin style headstock on UC-1 and "haircut" style on UC-2 & UC-3). A high quality U.S. built mahogany uke for about a grand just might find a nice little niche market. The UC-1s I've seen on the internet have all sold pretty quickly, so the market appears to be there for them.

Here are links to some pictures of prototype Collings ukes from Acoustic Music Works (I'm not sure how long these links will be good for):


UC-1 (prototype w/"haircut" headstock)
UC-2 Koa & Cedar
UC-2 Mahogany
UC-2 Mahogany sunburst
UC-3 Koa


Poll results:

The new basic Collings concert uke (UC-1) sells for about $1k, your reaction is:

-Not bad at all! Sign me up!: 3 votes (8%)
-It's a fair price, I would consider it: 1 vote (2%)
-It's a fair price, but I will pass.: 11 votes (29%)
-It's outrageous! I'll stick with LoPrinzi, thank you.: 5 votes (13%)
-Who is Collings???: 17 votes (45%)

Headstock lust

The last interesting poll (or not) conducted here was about headstocks. Specifically what type of headstock is your favorite kind. Out of 25 votes, 3 didn't care about headstock style. Of the remaining 22 votes, the slotted headstock was the run away leader with 11 votes (44%). The telecaster headstock style was dead last with just 1 vote (4%). My personal preference is for slotted headstocks as well, as evident from the couple of William King customs I've ordered. Before last week, I might have also placed the telecaster headstock last on my list, but now that I've gotten a couple of ukes with that type of headstock, I like them at least as much as the traditional type of headstocks. I think those tele headstocks look pretty good and is slightly more convenient to tune than the other types of headstocks. One thing is for certain though, I do not like friction tuners. I know many people think they look traditional and stuff, but I think they are simply a pain in the butt to use compared to geared tuners. Trying to make fine adjustments on a friction tuner is somethings an exercise in frustration. Some people think "stick out ears" geared tuners on ukes look ugly, but I think by that logic wouldn't all guitars pretty much look ugly?

I think it's fun to have ukes with different types of headstocks and different shapes. They make things more interesting. Here's my thoughts on the pros and cons of each type of headstocks:

Traditional with friction tuners:
-Pro: Looks traditional. Usually pretty light.
-Con: Difficult to tune with accuracy.


Traditional with PegHeds:
-Pro: Looks traditional. Easy to tune with geared 4:1 ratio. Lightweight.
-Con: Knob is made out of plastic.

Traditional with geared tuners:
-Pro: Easy to use to make fine adjustments.
-Con: Usually heavier than friction tuners.


Slotted:
-Pro: Nice look. Easy to make fine adjustments. More unique among ukes. Be like Jake Shimabukuro!
-Con: May be heavier (not an issue with tenors). Usually an expensive option.


Telecaster:
-Pro: Convenient to tune (all knobs lined up in a row). Stylish (if you like it).
-Con: Very un-traditional. Might make uke too long to fit in some cases.


Maybe I'll take some pictures of all the headstocks when I have time and do a "headstock porn" post or something.


Here are the poll results:


Poll: What's your favorite type of headstock???

-Traditional with friction of PegHeds (NO ears!): 4 votes (16%)
-Traditional with geared tuners: 6 votes (24%)
-Slotted: 11 votes (44%)
-Telecaster style: 1 vote (4%)
-I really couldn't care less about headstock style: 3 votes (12%)

Guitar companies and ukulele

The last poll asked you guys which guitar company's approach do you prefer. It seems many guitar companies are jumping into the ukulele game for whatever reason in the last couple of years. You have Martin making re-issues of their style 5 and style 3 ukuleles as well as an imported S-O model. Santa Cruz Guitar Company and Breedlove started making really expensive custom ukes last year. And this year Collings started making custom ukes while Fender started selling some tenors imported from Indonesia. Maybe the bad economy is forcing them to explore more ways to make money. Or maybe the ukulele really is gaining a lot of popularity. Whatever the reason, we're definitely seeing guitar companies getting into the ukulele market more and more.

About half of the people who voted on this poll preferred Fender's direction of providing affordable import ukes. That would be my preference as well. The ukuleles that are offered by Martin, SCGC, Breedlove, and Collings certainly look great and probably sound very good, but with the exception of the Mexican made Martin S-O, they are all well out of reach for a great majority of ukulele enthusiasts. Also, there are many great ukulele luthiers who builds outstanding ukes for less than the high-end guitar companies. For $3000+, I'm not sure why anyone should want a Breedlove, Collings or SCGC ukulele over say a William King or Glyph ukulele other than having that big name on the headstock. As for the Martin re-issues, I think it's cool that they are making these ukuleles available again, since they are nice ukes, but again their cost is very high. $5k for a 5k? Not too many are going to be able to drop that kind of money on a uke. I personally would have liked to see imported style 3 ukes in the $300 range. I would definitely go for that.

Speaking of imports, that's what Fender is bringing to the ukulele world. Many people in the ukulele online community have bashed Fender for their uninspired or unoriginal entry into the ukulele market. They say that Fender just took a Lanikai or whatever imported uke and slapped their Telecaster headstock on it and there's no innovation involved. I can't say I quite understand the negativity in that regard. It's true that the Fender ukes are probably just some stock ukes from some Indonesian factory with a Telecaster headstock, but I don't know how much more innovative you can get to bring affordable ukes to the masses. There are only so many ways to build a uke right? I really don't think it would be in anyone's best interest if they "innovated" and came up with something like the KoAloha Sceptre (I think the Sceptre is great, but there are plenty of people who are not down with that design). By providing decent ukes with a Fender twist (Telecaster headstock) at an affordable price (street price of $150-$300), Fender has approach that I agree with the most. Hey, maybe if their ukulele business takes off, they would come up with more unique ukuleles. Don't get me wrong, I love high-end solid wood ukuleles as much as the next guy, but I think if a guitar company wants to be serious about ukuleles, they should build from the ground up, i.e. start with more affordable but good quality stuff to build a following, before diving into the high-end custom ukes. When you start off with $3000+ ukes, how many people are realistically going to be in the market for that? (and no, I assure you I'm not in the market)

I found it interesting that there are as many who prefer Taylor's approach of no ukuleles as support for Martin & SCGC/Collings/Breedlove's approach. Taylor does not currently make ukuleles and there are no indication that they will enter the market. I actually kind of like their approach as well, since I kind of think perhaps the guitar companies should just mind their own business and leave the ukuleles to ukulele companies. But I can't help but think Taylor could maybe come up with some pretty cool ukuleles if they did enter the market. Then again, I'm sure a Taylor ukulele will cost a lot more than say a Kanile'a, so even if they do make them, I guess I'm not likely to own one. Another company with the same approach that I didn't list is Gibson. If they ever decide to re-issue their Uke-3 soprano or their tenors, I think I'm going to be seriously tempted. For my wallet's sake, I hope they don't. :p

So anyway, to put my money where my mouth is, I have a Fender Koa Nohea ukulele on the way! The reasoning behind getting this model is so I can keep a ukulele at my parents house without having to worry about humidity issues. As the Nohea is a laminate, it should be perfect for that purpose. I chose the koa laminate over the mahogany laminate because it looked better. For some online pictures I've seen, the Nohea looks great. And I dig the Telecaster headstock, so hopefully this will be a pretty decent uke. Look for a review of this one down the road.

Here are the results of the poll:

Which guitar company's approach to ukes do you prefer???

Martin (a few very high end and 1 low end): 6 votes (18%)
Fender (affordable imports): 17 votes (51%)
Breedlove/Collings/SCGC (insanely expensive customs): 5 votes (15%)
Tayler (no ukes for us): 5 votes (15%)

Playing the ukulele

I knew that most people who spends time reading about the ukulele on blogs like this one probably spend a lot of time playing the ukulele as well. The last poll pretty much confirmed that though. While there are a couple of you who just hang your ukes on the wall (nothing wrong with that, they look cool ;-) ), three-fourth of you play the ukulele daily. I am definitely in that group of daily players. Since taking up the ukulele in February of 2007, I have rarely gone a day without playing it.

So what do I do when I pickup my uke everyday? I mostly play the few instrumentals I know over and over. Maybe there's something wrong with me, but after playing "Gently Weeps" for probably thousands of times, I still can't get enough of playing it. The thing is, when I'm playing I'm mostly doing it to entertain myself, so I'm not really practicing hard and consequently I'm not really improving much. But I have fun with it and to me that's what matters the most. When my two daughters go to bed, a lot of times I play the ukulele in their room as they fall asleep. My younger daughter sometimes would cry when I put her into her crib, but if I stay in the room and play the uke, she's quiet and falls a sleep fairly quickly. My older daughter demands that I sleep next to her on her bed and I usually do it while playing the ukulele. This may explain why she fell asleep during the Jake Shimabukuro concert I recently took her to. :-P

These days the songs I play the most are an alternate version of "Blue Roses Falling" from Jake's "Live" CD, "Gently Weeps", "Thriller", "Me & Shirley T", and a couple other random songs. It's hard to tally how much time I play the ukulele a day because a lot of times I'm playing it while doing other things or in between other things. But when I'm at home, and even at work, a uke is usually within an arm's reach so I can scratch the ukulele playing itch when the urge comes. Once in a while, I would try to learn a new song, and that requires a little more concentration and practice. Right now I would like to learn "Gossip" and "Misty". Both tunes are extremely challenging for me and I'm dragging my feet on learning them right now, but hopefully I'll be able to learn them someday.

Anyway, playing the ukulele is very relaxing and enjoyable. It's good to see that many of you are strumming away on a daily basis. Hopefully this is a passion we can all share for the rest of our lives.

*Poll results are moved to the bottom of the page and will be deleted some time in the future*

Insanity? Or perfectly normal?

The last poll I put up asked the question "What's the maximum number of ukes a perfectly sane person should have???" Judging by the results, almost half you thought a person could own over 20 ukes and still be perfectly sane. For what it's worth, I'd probaby vote for 10 ukes. Which means I think I'm insane....:p

Yeah, I currently have 16 ukes (or is that 17?), but I stuggle to keep all of them played (I only have 2 hands...). I would say that I'm a player with a collector's mentality. What that means is I buy all of the ukes with the intention of playing them, but I have difficulty letting some of them go even if I don't really play them because I like the idea of owning it. Case in point, the Pineapple Sunday. It's a great uke. I love the looks and I think it has a very high quality sound. But I rarely play it because I like playing the other more traditional ukes I have more. So if I'm being honest with myself, I should probably move it. But I do like the Pineapple Sunday's appearance quite a bit and it is somewhat rare, so I feel like I should keep it.

I guess 10 ukes would be a good number of ukes to own so that one has a lot of variety but also can rotate though them within a reasonable amount of time. I would love to own 10 or less ukes, but right now I have a real hard time deciding which ones to let go. I like pretty much all of the ukes I have right now (except for the Sonny D, which I don't even count as part of the collection anymore :P). I guess this is what you get when you have a bad case of UAS.

This is how often my ukuleles get played:

Daily:

-King tenor
-DaSilva Santo repro(so far, probably move off this category in a few weeks)

Regular rotation (a few times a week):

-Kamaka tenor
-Kanile'a super-tenor
-Kepasa Gypsy Rose
-LoPrinzi tenor (new uke. Might move down in a few weeks. Already being squeezed out a little bit by the Santo)

Infrequent (a few times a month):

-Koa Works tenor
-Pineapple Sunday
-Kiwaya KTS-7 (might be moving up as I get into sopranos a little more now)

Once in a blue moon:

-Kanile'a super soprano (I ought to play this one a bit more. Still like it a lot)
-Honu concert
-Bluegrass cigar box
-Uklectic concert
-National concert (listed for sale at FMM right now)
-Martin Style 1 (tried to sell it on ebay but got a non-paying bidder)
-Bushman Cedartone baritone (basically a novelty uke for me)

So there are definitely some that I should probably find new homes for (so I can get new ones!) but since I'm self proclaimed as insane, who knows what will happen.

Anyway, at least it's good to know that many of the readers of this blog doesn't think I'm crazy. Thank you for the vote of confidence. Now, where's that next uke I'm looking for???

Here are the poll results (34 total votes):
>Over 20 (no limits): 16 (47%)
>10 (double digits): 8 (28%)
>4 (one of each size): 7 (20%)
>1 (why would anyone need more?): 2 (5%)
>Playing the uke IS insane!: 1 (2%)


*Actual poll is moved to the bottom of the blog and will be removed sometime down the road*

Curly Koa?

The latest ghetto poll asked the question: "How curly do you like your koa?" (results moved to the bottom of the left side of the blog) This time we only got 17 votes, but hey, that's still a lot more than the 4-5 I thought we'd be getting when I started doing polls. The majority of the voters (10 or 58%) preferred more subtle curls in their koa. Only 4, or 23%, liked as much curl as possible. Of course, this is a very small sampling of opinions, but I'm still a little bit surprised that so many more people prefer less than master grade stuff. The picture on this post roughly shows curliness from no curl (right) to 5A curly koa (left).

My personal preference is definitely for the high grade stuff. I've always like the look of super curly koa in pictures, and when I got the William King tenor with the 5A stuff, I thought it looked even more stunning in person. But I think the 2A-3A stuff looks very good too. The 2nd (Kanile'a) and 3rd (Koa Works) ukes from the left on the picture are more or less 2A-3A koa. The curls on those sometimes require you to tilt the ukulele in different angles to see. That's kind of gives off a 3D quality which is pretty cool.

The Kamaka, which is the 2nd one from the right, has very very subtle curls in the wood. It is more dominated by the dark vertical steaks in the wood. I've read that those streaks don't really factor into wood grading, but I think they definitely add to the appearance of the piece of wood.

So in conclusion, there is no conclusion...Everyone has their preference. There are even people who don't like any curls in their koa, so it really is to each his/her own. Good thing there are plenty of choices out there right now for all the different preferences. One thing's for sure, koa looks great regardless of how much curl it's got! (well, except for the one voter who voted for no koa...)

Here are the results of this poll. Look for more ghetto poll questions whenever you visit this blog!

How curly do you like your koa??? (preferably on a ukulele)

1. If 6A koa exists, sign me up!: 4 votes (23%)

2. I like them, but prefer the more subtle looking stuff (2A-3A): 10 votes (58%)

3. Straight grain for me. Curls belong on french fries: 2 votes (11%)

4. Koa is not my style. Get me some mango! (or insert any other wood): 1 vote (5%)