I have managed to fend off UAS since the end of April, which represents the longest UAS-less streak since I started the ukulele journey in the beginning of 2007. But that has come to an end. The uke you see above is the latest one, a Mainland concert with a slotted headstock. So why this one? Well, since I learned that such a uke was in the works, I became interested. Obviously, I'm a slotted headstock nut, but I also felt that the price was very good. Something that I can take a chance with without too much financial burden. Another thing is that I'm interested in comparing a Chinese mass produced solid wood mahogany uke such as this one against a high end semi-mass produced solid mahogany uke such as my Collings UC-1. Finally, I happen to have two pretty nice concert sized cases sitting around that I got for free (an Oahu case that came with my King concert and a foam/canvas rectangular Kiwaya I won from MGM in a contest) so this uke should fit in nicely (nice excuse huh?).Actually, it'll be interesting to compare the Mainland to the Collings. The Collings costs 4X as much as the Mainland, but I'm pretty sure the Collings won't be 4 times the ukes the Mainland is (this is not the same as saying the Collings isn't worth 4 times more). Should make for an interesting comparison.
To be perfectly honest, even with this purchase, I haven't really lusted after any ukes of late. I'm pretty sure this won't touch off a UAS frenzy for me. And with the addition of this uke, I'll be parting with my LoPrinzi mahogany tenor pretty soon. I can't believe I still have 15 ukes! My uke rotation is pretty much down to about 2-3 these days, so most ukes gets some token playing time if even that. But it only gets more difficult when trying to decide what to sell now because most of what I have now are really nice instruments and just about all of them bring something different to the table.
Anyway, stay tuned for the no-holds-barred smackdown between Collings and Mainland in a (ukulele) ghetto near you!
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