Chuck,
I've had my FireFly since March (Serial Number 22), and I love it. It is light, plinky, and plays like a dream. I ordered it after playing two of the prototypes at the Magic Fluke Headquarters/ Shop in Sheffield, MA. (I also ordered the Peghed tuners, rather than the standard Grover friction tuners).
One of the users on the forums has a negative opinion about banjo ukes with fixed (non-tunable) head, and feels that the Firefly is a cheap hand drum with a neck. That may be so, but it doesn't make it any less of a nice instrument or any less fun to play - for me at least.
I've played a few of the contemporary banjo ukes with tunable heads and resonator backs, and they are extremely heavy by comparison, much louder, and - so far - not as much fun to play as either my FireFly, or my 1920s Stella Banjo Uke.
That doesn't mean that I don't like the resonator-backed banjo ukes - merely that I haven't found one that turns my crank.
So yeah, the FireFly is nice. I'm no good at claw-hammer, but I do a little 3-finger picking, something I'm told is called "drop-thumb frailing" - I don't know what that is, but apparently I do it - and strumming. The FireFly works for all three, and the neck is slightly longer than standard soprano scale.
Enjoy it - just about everyone I've bumped into who has played mine loves it, too.
-Kurt
I just bought my brother a Firefly Banjo Uke for Christmas & college graduation - the one with the rosewood fretboard. Hopefully, he'll like it. He's 19 years younger than me and I can't keep up with these youngsters anymore in terms of knowing what's new and cool.
But these banjo ukes look pretty cool. Now I'm gassing for one myself. Anyone playing one of these? I've never tried a banjo uke, though I have a banjo and two ukes. I'm going to be jealous of my little brother now.
