Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this set, based on the reviews, as a gift for a young neice. Rather than just giftwrapping the box, I took the uke out, tuned it, retuned it, stretched the strings, retuned it. After 2 days, it would hold tune for about 3 minutes of playing (junk strings are probably to blame). I did all this because my neice would be a beginner and therefore be easily frustrated by an instrument that would not hold tune. Next I went to a "learn to play" site on the net and found C Am F G7 chord diagrams and started to attempt to play. The strings were so high off the fretboard that any note fingered above the 3rd fret would pull the string out of tune. The easy chords were difficult because the high strings got in the way of my fingers so that I could not finger a chord cleanly. With the intonation and tuning problems, I was not willing to give this instrument to my neice, so next I went to a local music store to see if a set of strings and some shaving of the saddle (the white peice on the bridge that the strings rest on) would make it playable. In order to gain a frame of reference, I picked up a $78 uke and strummed my newly learned chords. It sounded and played great! I told the music store guy that I wanted this uke to play like the $78 one. He said the the cost would equal the original cost and still might not produce a good instrument. Then he showed me a $40 instrument, an entry level uke from Kala or Lanakai. It played like the more expensive one, but didn't have the pretty binding, etc. I loved it and bought it. When I got home I called for an RMA and will send the much inferior Firebrand uke with all the books and cd's back to the seller. The sellers were nice and seemed concerned about selling an unplayable instrument. It's too close to Christmas to waste time on this one. Hope this helps you out.