Funny.......I JUST commented on the Howlett Vita Uke, on another thread. So in the interest of my laziness here is a cut and paste of those comments,
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I must concur with katysax. I also own the very rare Pete Howlett custom Vita Uke. Not only does it sound great and plays extremely easy, but to my (maybe poor) ears, it is indistinguishable from the original Vita sound, and is in fact a far better made instrument than the original. (Kind of reminds me of the Ken Timms reproduction of the Martin that everyone wants to own because it's arguably superior to the actual original Martin) While the original Vita was, in its day, the quality of an upper midrange priced instrument, the Howlett quality level is more in the MBU stratosphere. I own several High end instruments (K-ukes, Mya Moe's etc.) and the Howlett Vita is by far my favorite. This instrument seems to be a "semi-secret" build that is unadvertised on the Howlett Ukulele webpage. At the present time, I doubt if there are even 10 of them in existence in the whole world. And with Pete not that far away from becoming a "man of leisure", It behoves the "Vita Lover" out there to try and sweet talk him into making one for him/her. A high end Vita is a really different experience than what one gets from a conventional Uke.