I've had several Mele's over the years and liked them a lot. I've had baritones and tenors, 4 string and 8 string isntruments, and an old Braddah concert. They all had fan bracing, excellent balance from string to string, very good resonance, and very good to excellent volume and dynamics. Slim fast neck with low action. Very pretty tones, in my opinion.
Except for the Braddah, all my Mele instruments had sitka spruce tops with mahogany back and sides, ebony fretboard, tie block tie bridge, peghead overlay, and top and back binding. Rope purfling on the sides. Satin finish. Very nice appointments, and well-made. I think they're made in the Philipines (or maybe Java? I don't remember which), and are set up by Michael Rock in Hawaii. They'll set it up for anyway you want. The only thing I've noticed about Mele's is that the fret ends could be more finely filed - but they areen't anything like some of the Kanile'as I've played that had very sharp fret ends. But I've just been kind of aware of the fret ends on my Mele's. Otherwise, the Mele's were all very nicely finished with very nice build quality.
The Braddah was a cheaper all-mahogany uke with simpler appointments (this is a long-discontinued line of cheapo Mele instruments - in the days when an all solid uke for under $200 was shocking!!!). Playability was as good as on this little guy as on its more expensive brethren, but the tone was not as nice on the Braddah as on the regular Mele's. Not sure exactly why.
I've heard stories about Mele's having humdity/drying problems, but I have never experienced anything like that. All the Mele's I've had have been super stable. I think though, a lot of folks had bought some Mele ukes from an ebay seller who stored the ukes in a garage - so the storage method was problably the problem rather than the brand of uke.
The only reason I've been selling my Mele's is because I can't handle the longer scales anymore because I have arthritis - looks like I'm concert gal now!
By the way, Mele's Cheryl Rock is a super nice person to work with.
Oh yeah, Mele supplies balck Hilo's on their ukes - which I don't think bring out the best qualities of these ukes. I like Aquila's on them - never tried any of the flourocarbon strings on 'em though.