I want to buy a ukulele that’s not too expensive. No more than $6000 NT but I want it to stay in tune for at least a day.
Does anyone know of any good guitar stores? I’ve only found one so far that sells toys and an expensive $20,000 number.
[quote=“just.good.enough”]I want to buy a ukulele that’s not too expensive. No more than $6000 NT but I want it to stay in tune for at least a day.
Does anyone know of any good guitar stores? I’ve only found one so far that sells toys and an expensive $20,000 number.[/quote]
I play one of those “toy” ones in my band. I have several, but that NT$800 “toy” does the job. It aint’ the uke, its the person behind it that counts. I even used it in recording for our last CD.
Online is your best bet, though.
I have an NT$800 one too (from the shop on the corner of Nanjing E Rd and Jianguo Rd. It didn’t stay in tune great, but I stuck some decent tuners on it and it’s fine now.
Even so, you may be looking for something a bit better.
there is a guitar shop that sells ukulele. I just passed by yesterday : roosevelt road, when you go out of Guting station exit 3 and keep going, on your left. didn’t check the price.
If you’ve got the time and inclination you could consider this:
stewmac.com/shop/Kits/Ukulel … es#details
I’ve got just this kit sitting in my little workshop waiting until I have the time to build it, solid mahogany top, back and sides should sound nice and I love building and tinkering with stuff so the process is almost as fun as the end result for me…
Tony’s has a whole slew of them hanging at the entrance to the guitar aisles, but they look like cheap ones. I don’t know whether they have anything better, though.
1/21/2011 edit: They start at $700 for fun but dull sounding toys, have a couple in the low teens then jump to around the $4700 range; the cheapest are painted. A couple of the nicer ones (wood, not painted) had decent sound and sustain but that’s just a non-uke player’s initial reaction comparing them to the toys. I wasn’t having a serious look.
Plus they do give you a nice introduction to instrument building. Do be careful of the customs charging VAT for it though (send it by USPS whenever possible) However if you end up doing it wrong you will have a worse sounding instrument than those cheap ones. Plus you will need some tools (or the ability to modify an existing tool for your purpose) and I wouldn’t recommend Stewmac because they’re expensive. The total for the kit will likely run about 6000nt after shipping and stuff.
I go the StewMac Uke kit shipped with a bunch of other stuff by USPS and wasn’t charged duties, cost came in somewhere under 4 grand which I know is expensive for a uke, but like I said I was buying a project more than an instrument…
Apologies for straying off topic, but TWLuthiers, you wouldn’t know a local source for spray friendly nitrocellulose lacquer or failing that wax free shellac flakes would you?.. I’ve heard of an old Taiwanese guy in Taiping who hand builds great nylon string classical and alto guitars who’d probably know, but I’ve not been to his shop yet…
[quote=“plasmatron”]I go the StewMac Uke kit shipped with a bunch of other stuff by USPS and wasn’t charged duties, cost came in somewhere under 4 grand which I know is expensive for a uke, but like I said I was buying a project more than an instrument…
Apologies for straying off topic, but TWLuthiers, you wouldn’t know a local source for spray friendly nitrocellulose lacquer or failing that wax free shellac flakes would you?.. I’ve heard of an old Taiwanese guy in Taiping who hand builds great nylon string classical and alto guitars who’d probably know, but I’ve not been to his shop yet…[/quote]
If you had contacted me about 6 months ago I would have the tools to spray nitrocellulose lacquer… but unfortunately I sold all of the stuff. I can’t seem to find wax free shellac though, I tried and all I could find is waxed version. But what you need more than just spraying the stuff is to be able to sand/polish it or else it won’t look professional no matter what. You can actually buy spray cans (make sure they are lacquer, they are usually around 100nt a can) and spray it yourself, then wait 30 days for it to dry then sand and polish. You have to wait the 30 days it really does take that long for lacquer to completely harden. There are paint shop that will sell nitrocellulose lacquer cheaply but you need spray gears to spray it. They are good quality however.
Not too many custom instrument builders in Taiwan unfortunately… the market really sucks here (most prefers cheap Chinese made junk, and seasoned musicians will only buy something made by a foreign brand for lots of $$$) and the few that builds seems to have their regular client. I feel like I may be the youngest person in Taiwan who actually made a guitar.