It hurt to part with the OU5 because it was the first uke with good intonation I ever had. It was one of my best teachers and I highly recommend the Oscar Schmidt ukes. But it had a laminate top rather than solid would and when I got another concert uke, a Mainland with a solid mahogany top, its sweeter and louder sound was so much nicer I simply stopped playing the OU5. I kept it around a full year because I have such fond memories to go with it.
My first ukulele was a Mahalo. I can't recommend Mahalos because the intonation on a lot of them is so bad. Mine was twenty cents sharp by the third fret and that is really bad.
So it may come as a surprise to find I traded my OU5 for a Mahalo. For this one:
That is a LTD2 model. Mahalo make (or commission others to make) a whole lot of cheap ukuleles but with the LTD2 they decided to make a good one. And, at least in the case of the one I have, they succeeded in a big way. It has a solid mahogany top. The intonation is good (I took my chromatic tuner with me and checked before taking it).
Best of all, this ukulele barks. That is to say it has an aggressive percussive bark that is really lovely when you strum it. To my mind that is the the quality you want in a soprano ukulele. The larger ukes have lots of virtues but they can't give you that. If you can find a soprano with good volume, good intonation and bark, you've got it made in the shade.
It's also a lovely size. It's about as small as a soprano can get and it cradles in your arms like a baby.
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