Advice on buying electric ukes

Hi
I have been poring over websites and shops looking for my new uke, including many, many pages of this forum and I'm turning to you good folk for some advice.
I am looking for an electric or electro-acoustic concert size mid range for about £150 ($250 roughly I think) that would be good enough for gigs.
I can see from the posts a lot of members here are traditionalists not keen on decorated ukes but I personally feel a different looking one is more for me.
The ones that have caught my attention so far are the Vintage Laka vuvs6 (looks like a tiny gibson SG), the Luna Tattoo concert and the Epiphone les paul uke, but I want to know am I looking in the right direction here? All the reviews seem to vary so much I feel a bit lost reading them.

Any input would be greatly received. As I'm from the UK I'm a little restricted in sellers to go through without forking out for shipping, although I'm not ruling out overseas if the shipping isn't too much.

I've seen some people gigging with really CHEAP instruments. Would I gig with these instruments? NO.

But then again, I've gigged with some really good instruments which just happened to be cheap!

Where I'm going with this I don't know. Anyway, I would strongly consider a solid body instrument if your in a band with other members with LOUD instruments.

Anthony

Lots of very happy Epiphone LP concert uke owners. I plan on adding a bone saddle and Aquila strings to mine. If you consider the fit and finish, and the sound for it's price range, it's a fun instrument.

I just paid about what you mentioned for a Vox Ukelectric. I will get it on weds or thurs. I am familiar with Vox amps, guitars etc, and they generally only put their name on decent stuff. The one I bought has two options for amplified output. I bought it because it was unique and offered the option of built-in, 9v battery amplification. You might want to check them out if non-tradition might appeal to you.

anthonyg said:

Where I'm going with this I don't know. Anyway, I would strongly consider a solid body instrument if your in a band with other members with LOUD instruments.

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OP didn't mention if this was solo or band gig and what type of music.

Solid body would be safest in a loud environment. Hollow body is suspectible to feedback.

The konablaster seems to be popular for solid body. It uses steel strings.
Risa makes solid bodies as does eleuke. Not sure how good the higher end eleuke solid bodies are.

Thanks for the replies
I'm in an 8 piece electric band we cover pretty much any genre of music (and recently started writing our own) so I guess a solid one might be best.. I don't want to spoil a good show with feedback lol. I love the Risa LP shame they are way over my budget but I'd definitely consider one in the future the other band members don't have massively high end stuff so I won't be out of place with something like the Epiphone.
I love the look of the Vox that has been added to the ever growing list of maybes

vorson strat uke? only seen one review on here. They also have les paul and telecaster styles as well.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--VORFSUK1

Ravenmorghane said:

I love the Risa LP shame they are way over my budget but I'd definitely consider one in the future

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I think there is a used one still for sale here. If not and you want steel string, you should look at the Konablaster. You can get a "customized" one for half or less the cost of the LP. Stock bari even less.

OOh totally in love with the vorson LP just need to dig up some reviews and see how they sound Will have a look on the market thing for that used risa see if its any help thanks guys

Ravenmorghane said:

I love the look of the Vox that has been added to the ever growing list of maybes

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I will put quickee review of it up when I get it.
What intrigued me was that if I want to use it in a band situation, I can plug it into the amp or mic it from the front while using the little speaker.
I think that will make for some interesting experiments in live setting. From heavy metal to bluegrass with the flip of a switch or two