Unnecessary Background
Well I've begun shopping for a reasonably-priced concert ukulele in anticipation of completing Bernadette Teaches Music's #30dayUKEchallenge. I'm already finding my little soprano (that I bought without research) to be a bit uncomfortably small. After watching a size comparison, I suppose I should have started with a concert instead. But, it will be a good excuse to reward myself for finally sticking with an instrument for an entire program after years of on and off interest. (Recently I've been finding (micro)rewarding progress is helpful with ADHD)
I suppose I should have expected most of the major brands to be USA based since Hawaii was colonized afterall.
Here's a list of Non-USA owned brands that I found in a preliminary search.
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Ibanez
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- Country of Manufacture: I spy Made in China on all 3 uke models
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- Country of Ownership: Japan
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Aria
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- Country of Manufacture: China and Indonesia, Japan for platinum line (no ukes)
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- Country of Ownership: Japan
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Cordoba
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- Country of Manufacture: China
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- Country of Ownership: ~~Spain~~ Japan, owned by Yamaha now
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Your Local Luthier
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- Country of Manufacture: Canada
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- Country of Ownership: Canada
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- Edit: Added this in for those who can afford it/are skilled enough to justify a handmade one!
Disclaimer: Always check the CoM for a specific model you are interested in if you want to make sure.
Would love suggestions for other quality brands too if you know of any others!
Never tried their Uke, but seagull makes great acoustic instruments, made in Québec's eastern townships.
https://seagullguitars.com/product/uke-nylon-sg-burst-eq/
I have their mandolin (love it!) and an "M4" for when kids come over and want to play on something. Somehow, they always prefer to try the crappy neon green Mahalo uke...
I’ve only tried their uke in stores but have like it every time I’ve tried one. I have their mandolin as well, as well as the Godin A8 mando and several of their guitars, both acoustic and electric. I also have two of those M4s, or Merlins as they were originally called, one of which I actually had customized by a luthier to insert the “missing” frets to make it a chromatic instrument.
I can’t say that I’ve played any truly bad Godin products.
Now you got me thinking about getting another uke…
Oh! That Merlin modding is such a good idea! I like the sound of the Merlin and can usually shift tunes up or down to play parts on it...
I'll look into it! Some of my colleagues used to be luthiers.
It’s pretty cool, yeah. It’s basically like a weirdo mandolin-ish thing as I keep it tuned to DAE, but it’s fun. I don’t think it’s a particularly hard mod to pull off, but I’m no luthier myself. There are some videos on YouTube showing the process, but I just had a pro do it ‘cause I felt I’d likely just ruin the whole thing if I tried it myself. The results are pretty fun though… here’s someone else who also did the mod …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YawH26uTHXw
I see they have Merlins now that have pickups in them from the factory which wasn’t an option when I got mine, but maybe someday I’ll put a K&K in there or something which would be a fun mod. That’s a mod I’d be more comfortable doing myself, as I’ve messed around with pickups before, but I’ll stay away from fretwork for now.