Double Island uke impressions?

There was a short mention on UkeHunt, and as Al says there's no information on them.

Link to eBay item here.

I saw this uke in an earlier eBay listing (or one exactly like it). It looks reasonably nice, and if I had to guess, I would say it came from the same factory as Mainland (and, I suspect, Ohana and Bushman). But $300+ seems high to me, especially if it is the same factory as Mainland. You can get a Cedar/Rosewood Mainland Pineapple with a case for 1/3 less! Even less if you get the mahogany model.

The first thing that went through my mind was "Mainland!", but you never know.

The Double Island ukulele in the ebay listing looks a lot like the SamWill pineapple uke reviewed by UU's own Ian Chadwick, here http://www.ianchadwick.com/ukuleles/samwill.htm. SamWilli is a Chinese company.

There was a thread about SamWill ukes here, maybe a year ago here, in which one of the company's officials participated. My impression was they were just getting off the ground. Their not-very-helpful website is here. www.ukulele-mandolin.com.

Ukulele World sells them. http://www.ukuleleworld.com/SamWill/

Cheers for that, very helpful.

Still seems a bit steep price-wise though, especially since I have a Mainland already. Looks lovely tho, the double rose binding around the soundhole looks great.

I have a Double Island soprano and it is the brightest little uke I have ever played. I have also played their tenor and was rather disappointed with it. I bought my soprano at Music City in Cairns, Australia. It has the serial number "05". The owner of the shop had "01". I had the opportunity to get "02" but I liked the sound of mine better. The shop owner refuses to tell me where she got them. Said she had to protect her sources as the uke shop world is very competitive. They have had none though for a long time so maybe she will tell me now. I'll ask her.