Hi Ken,
I have been playing the UKE for about 6 months now, having never been able to master a musical instryment in my life, I can know knock out a half decent tune, be it the Sex Pistols, the Monkees, Bob Dylan or what ever you can find there is so much on this site.
I bought a cheap UKE on ebay a Mahalo, it cost me about £14 but was good enough to get me going. The best investment though was a chromatic tuner cos if it aint tuned rihgt it sounds awful !!
When I could play fairly well after about 4 months I invested in a better UKE a ovation applause, it is nice, but I still use my Mahalo as I can throw it in the boot of the car and not worry about it getting knocked
have fun <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_biggrin.gif" border=0 alt="Very Happy">
Simon