My advice to beginners is: get 2 ukes. Why? . . . .

I started out with two - a Kala tenor and an Islander soprano that I bought for my daughter and promptly borrowed. It worked out well for me because the tenor had setup issues and the soprano played great. I doubt I would have been able to progress as far as fast with just the tenor.

Rllink said:

Me neither. If someone had told me that I needed two ukuleles right off the bat, I would have probably taken up the guitar instead.

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Me too. How many beginners (true beginners, not transitioning classically-trained guitarists) get started on ukulele by reading tab and playing melody? The overwhelming majority of uke players I've met play chords and sing. Try explaining to them the difference between linear and re-entrant tuning and they zone out. It's easy to scare a beginner away and that's a darn shame when it happens.

Let's not make this more complicated than necessary. Tell beginners to buy a uke and enjoy it. If they decide they need another uke, then they can go ahead and buy it. Not like that ever happens ;-)

Most ukulele players that I know,try Low G and decide it's
not for them! The re-entrant tuning is what gives the uke
it's distinctive sound,and that seems to be why people love
it! Each to their own,of course. I too have tried Low G but
soon went back to the 'original' uke sound!

Two? Why stop there?

Ukecaster said:

Two? Why stop there?

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I know. Despite--what?--about three pages of responses, the original post is completely non-controversial and common sensical: there are two tunings and you'll need two ukuleles. I came to the same conclusion within a week of getting my first ukulele. However, upon reflection you realize that you need a ukulele devoted to open G tuning, one devoted to open C to get that banjo sound, one devoted to open E to approach Duane's sound, etc. You need to get creative when approaching the wife with a precis of a request for funds for a new ukulele that has a purpose. For example, I had to throw myself upon the mercy of the court officiated by my wife because I need, absolutely need, a tenor with a 485mm scale--otherwise I cannot play the tonic, the submediant, and subdominant shapes of my minor pentatonic in the same key. I simply need a custom-made long neck tenor with a cutaway!

My advice is just buy a low G string and swap it whenever you need. I mostly use low G. When I need high G, I just change G string. There is a good and fast way to change string (see the figures below). When we just simply wind the string (X in the top figure), some times it slips. Some times hard to wind, sometimes hard to tune for a while. Especial it is hard for swap strings because they are often shorter. I make a knot (see the bottom figure). This is fast and stable. This technique works even on slotted head classical as well as acoustic guitars.

When I started, I learned on 1 uke, learned all the basics and when I felt comfortable, I ventured out and got more ukes. What I also learned was the more time I spent buying ukes, the less I progressed. I don't want to judge anyone, but I feel a lot of people spend more time buying and looking at their ukes than playing them. If that makes them happy, I'm all for it though. Just not my taste really. I'd rather have 1 uke that I adore and play endlessly than to have 10 ukes I switched between.

Actually, it took me 4 ukes to find my right size, I first bought a tenor as was recommended, but it was too much of a stretch, so then got a soprano, which was too cramped, so a concert came along, this felt almost right.

I then saw a long neck soprano, having a concert scale & small body looked right, it was, & I used that uke for most of the first 6 months of my learning journey.