IUKE Red Standard

I love this!It's very tiny and being tuned an octave higher than a standard uke then the high pitch has a lovely music box sound to it.What's good about it?Well it holds its tune very well. Even with long breaks between plays it is usually either in tune or very close.The thick gig bag is sturdy and will protect it from most abuse.It genuinely is pocket sized (if you have a jacket with big pockets) and hence is pretty portable.The volume is pretty decent. It'll be overpowered by just a few other standard ukes, but being higher in pitch will likely still be heard in a small group and can add a nice additional or contrasting tone to an ensemble.So why only 3 stars?Well depsite having 2 of these from brand new, both had several faults in the paint and finish (not damage, genuine manufacturing errors in the colouring).The tiny size makes fretting very difficult for anyone with medium to large fingers, so some new methods need to be figured out.The tuners are not geared so tuning is a tricky affair for anyone not used to direct friction tuners.The price. It's a tiddler and the build quality isn't great, so quite expensive, but despite the faults it plays well and hold its tuning.The tuning. Yes it's an octave high. While that's good for providing contrasting tones in a group (which admittedly does sound good) it's a bit too high to use for general strumming.So in summary, the finish isn't great and it feels a little flimsy, but after more than a year of ownership it has survived a moderate amount of abuse. It has it's place and its uses, but as a general purpose instrument or learner tool it falls short.If you already have ukes and want something novel and fun to add to your collection then this is a worthy addition, if you're happy to pay this much...Pics attached show some of the imperfections on one of mine when fresh out of the box. The other was similar. Also see how big fingers may have trouble with the narrow fretboard. If you can work around this then it's surprisingly rewarding to play...