I recently took delivery of the "Rubin RP-400 All African Mahogany 17" Pocket Ukulele For Travel" from the auction site for £24 shipped.
It arrived from China very promptly (about a week!) Securely packed in a foam lined box.
There were some issues with it that I was easily able to fix after which I'm more than satisfied for the price paid.
These included:
- a very high saddle: swapped-out for another I had sitting around.
- tuners all needed their screws tightening and one had a loose face plate that needed a bit of superglueing (didn't affect function).
- the 2nd fret was slightly high and needed filling back to fix a buzz.
Other than these, finish is decent. Fret edges are smooth. The action is nice and low at the nut. There are fretboard edge markers but annoyingly none on the top. Construction is solid with good support inside the body but the instrument is light as a feather. And the mahogany laminate has a nice grain to it.
In play, given the shallowness of the body (and possibly how much I've lowered the action), and despite the nice Aquila strings, there isn't a lot of projection and the sound is thinner than a proper soprano. Intonation seems OK. The smaller fretboard takes a little getting used to. Strumming is easy enough but I wouldn't like to attempt any Bach on it (even if I could pull it off!).
Going back to my Ortega soprano feels like I've picked up a tenor!
All that said, given how small, light and cheap it is, it's close to being the perfect disposable travel uke.
Probably also a great choice for kids. My 11 year old daughter has already tried to grab it for herself. She particularly likes the patterned sound slots better than the usual round hole.
I can't wait to compare it to one of the expensive travel ukes like the Kala.