Lanikai Banjolele: MF deal of the day (16 March 2016)

ubulele said:

Since people are weighing in more with personal prejudices rather than with substantive comment about this banjolele or the vendor, I'm closing this thread.

Some counter-balance:

Given the massive street price differential, I doubt the Firefly is a near equivalent. I find Flukes and Fleas seriously over-hyped, given their tone and crappy tuners and fretboard; I wouldn't expect the Firefly to be some curious exception (though at least it has metal frets).

You could easily get a good local setup for a fraction of what you'd save on this offer--and the setup wouldn't get thrown off in shipping--so the setup aspect is a red herring. Anyway, setup on a banjolele is subject to change, given the floating bridge and varying head tension. A banjolele player better know how to make most adjustments himself--it's not quite the same situation as with normal ukes.

As for Musician's Friend, I may not like their new owner, but I've had no problems buying from them, and when they offer great deals like this, I don't turn up my nose. Similarly, I've gotten great deals on great little ukes from Butler and Amazon, and only had to shell out a modest amount to get them set up right (if I didn't do the work myself).

Shouldn't post here? If someone else hadn't posted similar heads-up when HMS was running specials on Ponos, I'd have had to pay an extra $80 each for two of mine. Another such heads-up let me snag two flamed maple Islanders from Amazon for just $90 each (regularly $250-280). I'm not a commercial concern or paid shill, so kindly STFU.

Click to expand...