Ok so first a big thanks to sgporc for the great review. It's the reason I went with this uke, and I'm happy I did. Overall if I had to be super picky:
- I'd say the tuners aren't the greatest, but don't appear to be slipping, they're just not super smooth.
- Also, I prefer the knobs on the eleuke to the slides on the stagg, just because it's harder to adjust the slides while playing.
- The fretboard also came a little dry, but a little oil made it shiny and fixed it right up.
These aren't big problems, just me being hyper-critical. Overall, though, for a $100 uke coming from a store that doesn't do a proper setup like MGM, These are very manageable issues.
The factory action is great for me. It's not too high, and not too low. I think action is like skirts, the theory of lower is better isn't always true, because sooner or later things just get trashy.
The intonation seems pretty good. Strings are still stretching, but so far it seems just fine. Plugged in, the uke sounds super clean and responsive. I'm already a huge fan.
Now as for the questions that arose.
The headphones and mp3 plugs in the back: aren't really a problem for me. They sit in the lower outer corner of the uke, near the plug, and I find that with a strap on that part of the uke is actually in between my torso and my arm, so no problem there. If you wanted to use it without a strap and were pinching it to your chest, you might have an issue though.
As far as the fretboard size, well, here's more pics. I have a kala soprano, the stagg concert, and a honu tenor lined up at the nut. You be the judge
and just the fretboards lined up next to each other for a better view
anyways, I hope this helps, thanks again to sgporc for the great review, as well as UU for being my favorite website. I'm very impressed with the stagg, if you're on the fence, go for it.
P.S.
Here's a couple of pics, because its shiny and pretty.