Official Luthiers Forum!

So my Smiley-Uke finally has a video done from the owner.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwwjaIrF ... ture=share

Oh...here are the final glamour shots:

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Way cool, and what beautiful back/side wood!

Excellent Don!!!

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Thanks...
It's really nice to see it being played by someone who really appreciates ukuleles and shares the joy of music with others.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

really enjoyed listening to that. Lets hope you take the world by storm with your smiley uke!

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

Thanks Joe! It would really be nice to have so many orders that I have to quit my job and open up a small factory to produce them. Never going to happen, even though I think it's a really great idea for an instrument.
The ukulele market is much lower priced than the guitar market, and there is fierce competition. And they may be smaller, but not necessarily easier to make!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Love the uke, and the performance, well done. T

Thanks Tim. Much appreciated.
I really enjoy John's videos. He's just an average guy who loves the ukulele and embodies the spirit of fun that the ukulele also represents.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

That's just Groovy, Don!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Don, not sure if it's the same in the US but here in the UK there's a real uke fad on at the moment. You see them being sold in arts centres etc and loads of uke groups springing up. You might find an outlet here in the UK if you went into production. It's such a good idea that I reckon you could make good bussiness from it.

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

Thanks Joe,

There seems to be a large number of people who think it's a cool idea, but as far as interest in the uke is concerned, it has the problem of straddling the line between a serious uke and a novelty uke. The problem is that in order to make them as cheaply as most novelty ukes, I would have to have them made in China in order to keep the cost down. My issue is that I really don't want to pursue that direction as it would take an enormous investment, and I'd rather put people to work here where jobs are scarce. Then again, the cost of labor here isn't cheap and that could drive the price up above where people would be willing to spend on it.

I have the name trademarked, and domain names registered, but I'm just not sure I'm prepared in any way to try to see if I can sell them in quantity. I know I can sell one or two more, but at what price do people want these, and at what price can I make them for? Can it be profitable, or would I lose my shirt on it? It's a tough call, and frankly I'm not capitalized enough to even dream of making it a mass-produced item. I would really seriously have to determine a lot of cost factors before taking it more than making a few at a time or one at a time. A lot of uke buyers buy inexpensive ukes with which the market is fairly flooded, and I don't want to compete with those. It's a tough call.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

It sounds great!

Very cool, Don. Makes me miss Iz. I'm sure he would have wanted one.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Yes, he was a great talent. Such a shame to lose people like him. He was awesome.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Dang...makes a guy want to smile!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I love it!

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I'm not much into ukes, but THAT is the kind of uke that I'd want to build!

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Thanks guys.

Do you folks feel this is marketable, as in, do you think I can sell a number of them?

All opinions welcome.

Thanks.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don, I don't think my opinion would carry much weight, but I would imagine that you should be able to sell quite a few. I watched a documentary called "The Mighty Uke" yesterday, and saw many different ukes of varying quality and shapes. I don't think yours would look out of place in the hands of many of the top notch musicians in the doc. uke

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Absolutely. Price them reasonably and put one in a well known guitar shop so it gets on their website with a sound clip or use that video. It could be your meal ticket out of here.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

What exactly is a 'reasonable price' though? I use a fairly simple formula. All costs plus my per hour rate. No point in charging minimum wage unless you are rich enough to subsidise the activity. Don't forget that 'All costs' must include a proportion of every single business cost, all factored into your selling price. Make a small batch (3 or 4 ?), promote and see how the market reacts. Give it time. I think you have already identified the possible sticking point: folk not viewing it as a serious instrument. Then again you just never know. Avoid trying to pitch the price so low that it becomes a chain around your neck. Forget the race to the bottom. You'll never beat the mass produced Chinese made instrument unless you want to mass produce them in China - that's a completely different game.
My $3,000 worth.

That makes a lot of sense. I don't want to produce them in China, if for no other reason too many of our jobs here have gone there in recent years. That choice may kill the whole thing before it starts though. I know a lot of novelty ukes are selling for over $1000 and sometimes even double that, but those doing that are well established and have their processes down cold. My other issue is where does one find wood at costs that make sense for trying to keep the costs down? Where does one find decent Koa these days?!!! There's not much out there anymore (rumor has it that a large factory on the West coast is buying most of it up) so that's one wood that's become very expensive, and it's traditional for ukes. Even Black Acacia aka Tasmanian Blackwood is getting crazy expensive. There's a lot of details to be worked out. Meanwhile, I do have plans to do a batch of 4 or 5, and we'll see what happens with that. I'll need to take a very hard look at costs involved through the whole process of the batch, and see where these things should be priced.

Thanks for all the advice folks...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Not to burst your bubble but the smiley face is actually trademarked in hundreds of countries. Walmart was even sued for its use on ads and such.

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Another day, another dollar.

I will have to look into that...but I thought it was long past the length of the trademark and is now free to be used. I will have to ask my patent/trademark lawyer about that.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Hi Don, it turned out lovely! And yes, it put a smile on my face, to

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin