I’ll throw in a mention for Tunic.

It’s pretty cool, yeah. It’s basically like a weirdo mandolin-ish thing as I keep it tuned to DAE, but it’s fun. I don’t think it’s a particularly hard mod to pull off, but I’m no luthier myself. There are some videos on YouTube showing the process, but I just had a pro do it ‘cause I felt I’d likely just ruin the whole thing if I tried it myself. The results are pretty fun though… here’s someone else who also did the mod …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YawH26uTHXw

I see they have Merlins now that have pickups in them from the factory which wasn’t an option when I got mine, but maybe someday I’ll put a K&K in there or something which would be a fun mod. That’s a mod I’d be more comfortable doing myself, as I’ve messed around with pickups before, but I’ll stay away from fretwork for now.

While we’re on the subject of ukuleles, anybody remember the triangl-shaped ukuleles they used to use in elementary schools years ago that were unique to Canadian music classrooms?

https://www.vintageukemusic.com/ukuleles/northern.htm

I remember still having these around in the 1980s and 90s at our schools in Nova Scotia.

A few years ago a younger kid was telling me they had a “Russian ukulele”, not knowing that it was actually part of Canadian history. They had thought it was Russian because it resembled a balalaika, but it was definitely one of these “Northern ukuleles.”

I’ve only tried their uke in stores but have like it every time I’ve tried one. I have their mandolin as well, as well as the Godin A8 mando and several of their guitars, both acoustic and electric. I also have two of those M4s, or Merlins as they were originally called, one of which I actually had customized by a luthier to insert the “missing” frets to make it a chromatic instrument.

I can’t say that I’ve played any truly bad Godin products.

Now you got me thinking about getting another uke…