One of the first Ukes that I bought was a Kala KA-15S from MGM. They are around $50 and once the Aquila strings settled in it was a great sounding uke. You couldn't beat it for the price. I'd give this model a hard look-see....
I've experienced a similar thing. I've bought 3 dolphins, the blue is awsome [kept that one] , the yellow was good , and the black was fair-poor. Maybe it's the color. I read in a poodle book that the different coat colors had different attribute ratings , and the Black standard rated the highest. could this be the same in ukes, only in reverse!!!!!
I second the above. Carefully check out the intonation, don't play down any problems you observe in the shop. Intonation problems will just sound more and more annoying as the days, weeks and months go by. On the other hand - if the intonation is perfect you may actually love the sound of the instrument more and more as you learn how to make its particular sound shape work for you. But you'll never get used to bad intonation -- that works the opposite way because you'll get better and better at noticing it.Here is what you do...
Take the advice of potential ukuleles given here, but...
...buy a digital tuner, then go find a ukulele in person from the suggestions that meet your intonation requirements. If you really want to do a bang up job, buy an automotive feeler gauge with various blade thicknesses and you can measure first string height, 12th fret height, you can even measure how much neck relief (not that you can do anything on that one).
John
I don't know about color being a factor. I had 10 dolphins that I re-strung before giving them away, and the metallic black one was pretty good. I had an assortment of colors too, and two each of the pink burst, purple burst, and three metallic blue. One each of green, metallic black, and lt blue burst. The one that was the most "off" was one of the pink ones. I think it depends more on who was doing the final set-up work at the factory that day. That is going to be pretty variable.
–Lori
Not sure I like the rope binding on the mainland ukes or I would consider one of them.