… and you beat me to it. Ohana be damned, I guess.
Much as I hugely love my ukes, the season of tweeness is passing and taking the fad with it.
And real Kona, to boot!
I have to disgree so far as ukes go. The uke with the gigbag is a decent starter uke. The 24.99 is probably okay too, so long as real strings are purchased for it.
I’ll give somewhat on the uke as you may be right but it is cutting it very close. All the rest, still a hard no. Re-caps for your car, as bad as they may sound, would be a wiser choice. A very bad choice indeed but still wiser. I will try to stress the valid point one more time. If you buy something that can and may be re-sold, you are better off than buying something that you have to put in the trash if it does not work out. Look, every single day $150 well spent is much better spent than $50 thrown in the crapper.
I agree that these instruments are probably not exactly top notch, however I did buy the uke for my husband for Christmas anyway. He plays guitar and has always mentioned wanting to play a uke. He actually plays around on my daughters $25 kid-size Target guitar (talk about cheap…) so I figure a cheap uke won’t matter much to him if he’s just messing around in his office.
Harmonicas. This isn’t a bad deal for a beginner starter instrument. If you seriously want to play Hohner mouth harps though, get ones that are made in Germany, not ones that are made in China. Just sayin’.
Why wasn’t I notified of this?
Well, you’re in luck, here’s what a 99-dollar violin sounds like:
[youtube=SFaCpYRMKB8][/youtube]
Wow makes me think about it now. Not to bad…I have thought about buying 1 before. TY
Heck, if I could make a 99-dollar violin sound like that, I’d be in for three in a heartbeat! 
The capo certainly is no deal! $14 at MusiciansFriend.com in black (KG6B), ($15.99 in other colors) and free shipping!
It’s not a good deal, amazon, target has similar price $128.44 and of course, it ships faster than woot and is easier to deal with when you have problem.
Harmonica sells for $12.99 on amazon by itself. Harmonica for Dummiesis another $14.95.
Sounds like a good deal for someone wanting to get started. Reviews aren’t great but they aren’t bad either. (3.9/5.0 rating on harmonica)
You don’t get the years of experience as part of this deal. I can assure you it will not sound like that when a beginner plays it.
My instrument sounds like a masterpiece when my professional teacher plays it, too. That’s more of a reflection on him, not the instrument.
The best way to buy (or rent) a violin, viola, etc is to have a private teacher help you pick one out. I do like the Eastman brand for student instruments, personally. I have one of their intermediate/advanced violas and it is a great value.
As long as it’s reasonably built, you have what no critic can take away: Pythagoras’ discovery that scales can be derived from a string under tension by stopping it at certain ratios. What you get in an instrument like this is the ability to learn fingering and bowing; what you don’t have, quite needless to say, is the performer’s instrument. You’re not going to find many violinists, who spent good money on, well, not necessarily good instruments at all, but more expensive ones, that are willing to admit any value in something like this; but the fellow in the video seems to be an exception.
I have a thousand-dollar electric violin that I mostly play without the power on at all. It sounds as bad as any muted instrument; but that has nothing to do with practicing my intonation.
Anyway, I suppose I’ll let the comments degenerate into ignoratio elenchi. Whatever you’re told, bear in mind a beginner sounds terrible on a Stradivarius, too.
It’s really not, though. Ukes are the one instrument I’ve tried where experienced folks have said “Pick up the $20 uke and give it a try.” As far as sopranos go, those cheapies can play as well as more expensive ones and give you a decent enough sound to reward your effort. Enough to build a foundation on. My guess is the nylon strings and the short neck are a factor in this. I still play my toy uke, because it’s a great visual with my more humorous stuff.
I absolutely agree about the guitar. When I bought my Taylor, it was because I heard what the cheap guitars sounded like and knew I’d never play if that was my reward.
Except it’s hard to get good with a POS. I will forever rant against the absurdity of buying cheap gear for a beginner. It will do nothing but help to frustrate people and cause them to give up more easily.
Don’t waste your money on any of this. So says a musician of 17 years whose parents bought him a real Fender Strat as a child, not a Squire that goes out of tune after hitting two strings, and not something worse (pictured here).