A variety (namely, a brand, but also a rather specific variety) of
ukulele produced by the
Magic Fluke Company, headed and founded by "Jumpin'"
Jim Beloff. The idea behind the company was to promote the
ukulele as a reputable and often-used
instrument, as opposed to something of a
novelty item, by providing a quality ukulele for
beginners.
The Fluke comes in a variety of alarming colors, and has a flat base that you can stand the instrument upon. Its body is, astoundingly, made of
plastic, but it seems to resonate as if it were made of a high-quality
wood, which makes it very affordable while sounding much like a more expensive instrument. They come with a decent travel case not unlike the sort of
gig bag you'd get for a
guitar for thirty or forty bucks, which also has a conveniently flat base.
When I went ukulele shopping for the first time (on vacation in
Honolulu) I was approached with several very cheap instruments that sounded rather terrible, and a reasonable (+-$200) instrument which looked kind of
goofy. Its plastic body scared me off a bit, but its sound was astoundingly rich in comparsion to the other ukes of that
price range (or even slightly above). I was strangely told by virtually every
employee in the store (which sold only ukuleles) that I'd picked out the best buy possible on the way out. I'm inclined to agree with them, even a few weeks after having made my purchase.
The only
problem with the lower end Flukes (mine was $200) is that they have a shorter neck than some of the slightly more expensive ($250-$300) Flukes, which makes them sound kind of
dull as you move up the neck. You can get a nice sound out of them even there, but you have to put a little more force into the
strum, or use a pick (which kind of defeats the purpose of having a uke, since it just sounds like a
guitar at that point, in my opinion).
Mine, additionally, had some problem staying in
tune (at one point it literally unwound as I watched it), until I took a
screwdriver and slightly adjusted the screws on the tuning pegs. This took maybe 15 seconds, and entirely resolved the issue. I haven't heard explicitly of this happening to other people, but it's a possibility. These are
mass-produced, inexpensive instruments, so there is the potential for some minor production
oversights such as that one, but overall they seem to be of an astoundingly high quality for their
class.