From my experience with this brand you'll want the music store to at least set it up before you take one home. They tend to come with a high action and pretty bad strings. If the store can set you up with any other strings and shave down the action a little, you'll be well on the way to a half decent instrument for the coin.i am pretty new here and only got my uke about 1-2 weeks ago, but i bought a makala concert and, although it is only cheap i got it out the box and tuned it up and it played fine. i was surprised at the quality for the price. it is by no means a proper instrument, and i am still waiting on some aquila strings, but it is fun to play, which is the main point really. however, if there are ukes that you can try and decide if you like, that is a fairly safe option- trying out instruments when possible is always a good thing.
like freds old 1.
makala's are good though
i play guitar and did not fancy switching down to a soprano straight off (although i'm sure i will obtain one at some point, i just thought it would be hard to switch to that small at the time). i found it a good size to go down to. i actually found switching down not a problem, but at first going back up to guitar i would buzz a few chords 'cause i would be holding the top of the frets 'cause i was used to the smaller frets of the uke.
