I'm the guy who bought the Sceptre from Mark and I too implore you Mark not to give up playing the uke because of this! I've already apologized for initially going off on you and I believe you didn't realize the top was caving in when you sold it to me. You've already said you'd take it back and refund my money so there's no hard feelings just some inconvenience for both of us.
The first thing I look at on any stringed instrument is the bridge area because this is where all the string tension is. Thin tops and light bracing sometimes can't take the load and the result is that the top starts to cave in between the bridge and the sound hole. As time goes on it only gets worse. The fault lies with the builder and from what everyone is saying Koaloha will make good on it.
I'll get my mirror out later and look inside to see what type of bracing the Sceptre has and pass that info on to everyone.
Again Mark, keep on playing your ukes! You're a stand up guy and could have just told me to go scratch but you didn't and this will all work out for both of us! s** happens!
Thanks for the support Glenn and responding on this thread. I appreciate you doing that. I'm going to keep playing just going to be getting rid of most and not buying anymore.