Post #108117 by Hot Lava on Thu, Aug 12, 2004 9:55 PM

On my honeymoon in Hawaii a few years back I dropped some big coin on a beautiful pineapple Kamaka.

I was looking for something a little less precious to drag around in the car (I play on the way to work) and after doing a bunch of research, picked up a Flea model uke made by the Magic Fluke Company. These are available from http://www.fleamarketmusic.com, but I bought mine from [url=http://www.elderly.com/search/elderly?terms=fluke&x=15&y=7Elderly Instruments[/url] since they had them for about $24 cheaper, with bag.

The Flea sounded surprisingly good considering its small size and plastic fretboard. The tuners can be tightened, so when you get the instrument in tune you tighten up the tuners -- lo and behold your uke doesn't go out of tune while you're playing it. It wasn't quite as loud or resonant as my Kamaka, but for a $400 difference in price, who cares? As a starter instrument, you can't go wrong with it.

For a little bit more, you can go with the larger Fluke model. I eBay-ed the Flea recently and upgraded to a special concert-sized Fluke with a 16-fret, rosewood fingerboard and a Fishman pickup so I can inflict aural damage on bigger crowds in the future -- the larger size projects more volume and the instrument is especially resonant: strings played near the top often sound as if they are being 'doubled' or run through a chorus pedal.