What should a decent ukulele cost?

[Br1ck]

May be on your high side, but Pono makes a very nice solid wood uke that you'd need to spend $1000 on to better, for less than $500. It is a fine sounding uke and well set up from Hawaii Music Supply.

[leew3]

Sorry I can't answer your original question, as my instrument is not properly a uke. I will say that my Kala uBass is very well built so I would add my endorsement of that builder to those of previous posters.

[bendandsnap]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Got burned on a tiple I bought from them a couple years ago - not only never set up but I doubt anyone even looked at it before throwing it in a case for shipping (strings were coated with what looked/felt like tar, action way off the fingerboard, intonation completely off) - returned it next day, and while they've had some nice stuff on their webpage I'm extremely reluctant to deal with them again...

I had a similar problem with them (Uke Republic). I don’t know how, but they missed the setup and shipped without inspecting as they said they would. There was a dent on the side of my instrument which I only noticed after receiving it and zoomed into the images on the product page. They should have listed it as B stock. At least the service was good and gave me a return label and refund without any hassle.

[dhalbert]

A couple of years ago I got a nice B-stock Islander from https://coolhandukes.shop/ in San Diego. It was well set up.

I was going to go with Mim's but got intrigued by the Islanders, which had a wider nut and bridge pins. It's clear to me that Mim's would still be a good choice -- they just stock some different brands.