Buying Guide , Its all about the sound:)

Price--
When buying any ukulele you must play it and know thats the sound you like. dont buy by looking at the price tag becasue there are $100 ukuleles that sound better then some $300-$400 ones and vice versa. when going into a ukulele store have the worker play a couple of what he thinks is best becasue he probally played every single ukulele in that shop dozens of time. giving him a price range tho.

Style : make sure that the ukulele sounds right for your style of playing. it may sound good strumming but terrible in picking. theres ukuleles that can do both so play it and find out if it suits your style.

Playbility: after you find the right sound and style. make sure the setup is right for you. some like the action real low some dont. balance and see if with this setup you can hold chords easier without buzzing and that you can still pick plunk strum whatever you like to do most.

bored at work typing this

I bought three of my four ukuleles online, the first one four months ago was an impulse buy, a Mahalo T A/E (styled after the Fender Telecaster, which I have). I knew nothing about ukuleles, but decided to make it my entrée. It was $99, and found it for $65. It sounded fine, as best as I knew, but it didn't take me long to find that a soprano was just too small for me so I sold it for $35.

I then learned about the sizes, styles and prices, and looked for a tenor. I knew I wanted a cutaway acoustic/electric with tuner and found a Lanikai LQA-TCA marked down from $329 to $149. This time I went to a store that had it. It sounded good to me, but it had the volume and tone controls in the sound hole under the strings, and no tuner. The looks and the price swayed me, so I bought it.

I gave it to my luthier to lower the action, and realized when it's in the shop I will be without, so I go online and find an Eddy Finn EF-13-TE for $158. It had some good reviews, so I got it, but the first day I broke the cable connector and had to get a replacement from the manufacturer under warranty.

The Eddy Finn is brighter and has a little more sustain that the Lanikai, but the Lanikai is more comfortable. While waiting for Eddy Finn, I saw a Gretsch G9121 online for $199, free shipping, and in reading how good it sounded, I ordered it (arriving next week). My feeling is it will be the best of the three.

So I'm definitely one of the guilty ones of buying for price and features and not trying them out. The Eddy Finn is very nice, the Lanikai I replaced the preamp but having trouble with the wiring, and looking forward to the Gretsch.

haha im the same. Money is the one of the factors in deciding especially if you find a $350 ukulele for sale for $150. thats a deal. honeslty most entry level ukuleles are decent that you dont really need to hear the sound but just got to watch for certain defects like buzzing etc. but overall all entry levels are equiped with aquilas string so they sound alright. just there is great entry level ukuleles that sound awesome and some just falls short of why did you even waste your time building this.