International Jazz Banjo Newsletter

National resonator ukuleles are not easy to find. Very few dealers in Europe offers any for sale. They are certainly a bit expensive, but so are a lot of other instruments that you can find in the instrument shops, so why no National ukes? After looking for some time on the Internet and in person in various European music shops, I realized that the only proper answer would come from the manufacturer. So I wrote to the National company, and this is a modificiation of their reply combined with my own comments:
National still produce ukuleles. These are the models and their suggested list prices in the USA:
Steel - powder coated $1,300
Steel - vintage steel $1,400
Brass - Replica $2,080 (this one is a Style "O" that has been intentionally aged to look old)
Brass - Style "O" $1,960
Brass - Style "O" Deluxe $2,190
Brass - Style 2 $2,200
Brass - Style 3 $2,700
Wood - mahogany $1,140
Wood - maple $1,140
For pictures of some of the models please go to http://www.nationalguitars.com/ukulele.html
Some ukulele models have been discontinued because they were essentially not being ordered. National build their instruments to order. This means that if there are no orders, they do not build. They produce between 850 - 1000 instruments (guitars, mandolins, ukuleles) per year. To further understand why their ukuleles are so exceptionally rare in Europe, one might ask European dealers why they do not order more of of them. Obviously, the price might be one reason, since a lot of people go for cheaper ukuleles these days, but again, many people wouldn´t think twice about paying good money for a top quality instrument of another kind.
The problem is availability. With, say guitars, there is an abundance of instruments and manufacturers to choose between, so you can decide whether you want one type of guitar or another. Same with most ukuleles, but National is an exception. If you can´t find them you can´t try them yourself, and quite reasonably, you hesitate to order if you don´t know what it is like playing it.
Jonas Svensson.