Pirate Jim
Well-known member
Meet Alic. About 4 or 5 years ago I shelled out £50 on impulse to try this little thing out. Plastic back, plywood top, awful holographic thing on it, plastic fretboard. Just reading that makes me want to go back in time and stop myself! The thing is, though, this uke sounds far better than it should and is really comfy to play. I now see them branded as Mahilele and Flight so the factory producing them has obviously done well!
I've played this uke in a hostel in San Francisco, under the stars in Yosemite, round a fire in Cornwall, by the canal in Berlin, on a Tuscan hillside and stuck on a motorway after there had been a crash that caused an epic tailback. My eldest was sick all over it when she was a baby and she now likes to use it as a makeshift tennis racket. It has lived and been played to almost literal death! Slowly over the last couple of years the top has been coming away from the body and I figured it was time to consign it to history.
This evening, however, being the master luthier I am, I grabbed the super glue and stuck the warped and split top back on. Let it set, strung it up and blow me down if it doesn't sound just as good as it did when new. I've had expensive ukes come and go but none of them have represented true value and memories like this £50 bucket of junk. What a fab instrument and what an advert for not having to spend the earth to get something you can love for years.
That's all, just wanted to share
