It's something that you will see mentioned a LOT on social media. UAS or 'Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome'. A tag name given to the fact that there is an assumption that all uke players can't stop buying new ukuleles... Well, a confession. I used to suffer from this, but strangely not any more..
The concept is not new, and in the world of guitars the term 'Guitar Acquisition Syndrome' (with a far funnier acronym of GAS) has been talked about for years. I suspect it actually happens with all sorts of instruments, or in fact anything that had a community side to it.
Yet we have all seen the endless memes and graphics on various social media outlets. You know the sort, the ones that say, jokingly that you 'can't have too many', or the endlessly shared graphic of Batman slapping Robin edited to read something like 'no, that's not enough ukuleles.. Or how about the image of the confused child coupled with a line like, 'so then she says no, you have to many ukuleles...' You know the sort of thing because they are endless. They seem to perpetuate the myth that 'more is good' and by doing so, come with an additional layer (unintentional perhaps, but by deduction, an additional layer nonetheless) that fewer instruments in ones collection is in some way bad or sub-standard. That worries me. Not only do I think it is a flawed concept, but who the hell came up with this?
So what is it? Well, as simple as the name suggests, it's the compulsive buying of more and more instruments, just because they are there. Think of it like mountain climbers or bird spotters who have to bag more and more of them just because 'they are there'.. (well like mountain climbers and bird spotters but with the added bonus of them costing lots of money..)
To be clear from the off (to save those who only skip to the end of these rants in order to express their offence without actually reading the words..), how many ukuleles you buy is entirely up to you. As far as I am concerned, if you buy one or you buy one hundred, it doesn't matter to me. You should do what makes you happy. In fact it doesn't (or shouldn't) matter to anyone, because how many instruments you have is no indication of either how well you play or how much you love the instrument. It is merely an indication of, well, how many you bought. Nothing else. Nada.
