Yael
"Peacock"

A Ukulele for a penny!

No really!! That is officially what I paid on eBay for the Chinese Concert with the laser etched peacock! Of course there was postage on top so in reality I paid more than a penny but when I saw it as an auction item with a starting price of a penny  I thought "that's got to be worth a punt, even though I am bound to be outbid, but that's ok; after all I really don't need another starter level Concert and of itself it's not that spectacular". But no one else bid so it stayed at £0.01 for 7 days! As I said it's not that spectacular on its own, though I am sure it will be perfectly playable, but I will always see it now without the postage cost and "the 1p Ukulele" and with that story it's kudos is, in my book, significantly upped.

Strangely enough though, (or maybe not?), I saw the same model in a "buy it now" offer with free delivery for exactly the same amount as the postage on mine and the extra penny? Same peacock and everything but this one was branded Yael so unless there is something else on mine - it was sold as unbranded - I will call it a Yael and look for information about the factory/distributor that makes/sells them.

It's here now and it is branded Yael, though its arrival puts me no closer to knowing who specifically made it or who owns the Yael brand name? It was exactly as I expected a nicely made laminate mahogany Concert with a laser etched stylized peacock on the front; well worth a penny probably worth the penny and the rest of the postage cost if it arrived undamaged but it wasn't packed with enough padding and something hit it on the back making a small but noticeable dent in the back, on the edge just below the waist; there is some cracking around the dent too. The dent doesn't affect the tone or playability of the uke, and it hasn't affected it structurally either. I don't think it will ever get worse and as a cosmetic problem, well you have to examine the back fairly closely to notice it. Still I complained about the poor packing and the seller refunded me three quarters of the cost, including the postage cost, so now it's not a Ukulele for a penny it's a Ukulele for a farthing, (for those that don't know many, many years ago, in fact long enough ago to be before I was born there was a coin in the UK that was legal tender called a farthing and it was worth ¼ of a penny. It was much smaller than a penny too - though pennies were much bigger then - and this is where the name for the Penny Farthing bicycle came from)