Paxphil Exhibition Resonator

This was on eBay just after Christmas and as I've said many times on this site I'm a big fan of Resonators, (and ƒ holes; and archtops; but anyway..). This was an interesting looking Resonator from Germany and after some research I found out it was a special exhibition piece for the 2011 Frankfurt show by the Korean firm Paxphil. It eventually sold for quite a bit more than I was willing to pay but that's the way of things often; let's face it If I won all of the auctions I went for Ukulele Corner would be three deep and I would be super skint. A month later and the Ukulele is back up on ebay, the person who won, didn't like it and returned it saying the frets needed dressing in the top half of the fretboard. So its on again with this warning and no one bid so I got it for half the price it went for last time because a bit of fret dressing is not a lot compared to some of the clunkers I buy.

Yes the frets could be tidied up but they are not that bad. I had more of a problem tuning it with the steel strings, I couldn't work out where it was supposed to be? My first attempt was for g~C~E~A but I think an octave too high, (luckily its built like a tank; and weighs about the same too). Then I tried a re entrant d~G~B~E but it still didn't seem right so I've come down even more and settled on an a~D~F#~B, (going right the way back to g felt a little slack). With steel strings and a Tipple Ukulele tuning it does have a bit of the sound of a Tiple. I'm happy with the tuning now but not 100% on the strings? I'm not sure if the gauges are right there seems a huge difference between the 3rd and 4th, (truth to tell I'm not really sure its supposed to be steel strung but as a one off exhibition piece its not something I can look up?)