Funny you should ask... I can't speak to Kala and George specifically, but here's my two cents' worth: I've recently purchased two ukes from HMS (The Ukulele Site). One arrived in about 13 days beautifully set up. Zach called the day it was shipped to explain the delay, and I was fine with that. It arrived seven days later (HI to CA to KS to MO). It's a Pono acacia concert deluxe and I love it. A few days ago I ordered a Pono mahogany baritone, which was shipped on Wednesday and will arrive next Wednesday. Those folks are the best! Now to part two: one of my first ukes was a Makala Dolphin. Everything I had read about the Dolphin said it was great as long as you put Aquila strings on it. I ordered it through Amazon, along with the Aquilas. It came in two days. I put the Aquilas on and thought, "Okay, this is nice," but I had very little to compare it to. About a month later, curiosity got the better of me. Would a properly set up Dolphin sound different? I ordered ordered one from Uke Republic, it came in (I think) three days and OMG. You wouldn't know it was the same model. I realize that different instruments from the same model can be different, but this was so dramatic, I have to attribute it to the set up. So - yes, it takes longer to come from Hawaii (depending on where you are!), but HMS is great and it's worth it - and yes, set up is important (assuming, as I have been doing, that you can"t do any necessary tweaking yourself and don't want to take it to a luthier for adjustment right out of the box). That reminds me - I ordered one once (not from HMS or Uke Republic) that came with a pronounced buzz on the C string. It cost about $ 150. I took it to the guitar shop, and they said that it wasn't worth fixing. So - HMS and Uke Republic are great!