Gillian, love the vid! I'm a Beatles freak and knowing George Harrison played and loved the Lili'u was the driving force behind my purchase. Doc, as the one who got you started thinking about this, I guess I should chime in. Haha. It really, really is a different animal, the six string. I'm not sure why I waited so long to buy one. I'm a major KoAloha fanboy, so I really overloaded on purchasing their instruments for a good while, and I think that's part of it. Anyway, I had a chance recently to play pretty much every Kamaka production model, and all I can say is that I was pleasantly surprised. I think that they're wonderful instruments. As far as tone goes, head-to-head, I'd give the edge to KoAloha, but that's just a subjective opinion and I'm sure the consensus, if measured among uke enthusiasts, would be split down the middle. However, Kamakas are every bit as "good" as KoAlohas, they're just different. I love the two Kamakas I presently own; both purchased very recently.
The Lili'u I bought had a bit of a buzzing type issue initially. I spoke with Dana about it and he gave me some good advice which I appreciated; I was thinking about returning it but he suggested keeping it for the uniqueness factor. I agreed and did so, and I'm glad I did. Some have commented on the "fullness" of the six string sound already, and I agree- but it's not that it's necessarily louder than other ukes I own, as the KoAlohas are all pretty much louder- there *is* a fullness to the sound that cannot be duplicated with a four string. Like Gillian, I agree that I don't see myself playing it all too much compared to my other ukes *because* it's so different, but that could very well change- especially now that I just changed the strings on it three times today with various sets and have finally resolved the buzzing issue with a new set of Kamaka strings; which I think I prefer after sampling the Worth CTs and Aquilas.
So yeah, it's different. I really hardly ever fingerpick, but I still think it's strange playing a six string. But again, it's different and that's what I like about it. Plus, having a Kamaka Lili'u, from the inventors of the instrument, makes it that much more special. Here's a video from Corey at HMS, which I'm sure many of us have already seen. He tears it up both fingerpicking and strumming... good stuff: