Ukuleles - all much of a muchness?

[VeryPunny]

Would like to get my 3 year old a ukulele for Christmas. Are they all much of a muchness or is there a recommended brand? He’s generally a careful chap so I don’t reckon he’ll be smashing it around but still I don’t think we need the Steinway of ukeleles... I’m happy for him just to tootle about on it open strings etc.

Thanks in advance!

Yep, really not worth spending loads. The four of us all have £15 Mahalos in different colours!

My little one has a low end Stagg which has a nice tone to it actually. A ukelele playing friend recommended putting Aquila strings on cheap ukeleles (about £7 for a full set) to get the best from them

Definitely a cheap one with Aquila strings. Are you going to teach him to play?

I would quite like to teach him, yes. He’s always singing but hasn’t shown much interest in our piano, beyond the odd session messing about.

How difficult is it to replace a string? Is it the kind of thing a local music shop would do? Or would they get sniffy if I asked them to do it for me if I didn’t buy the instrument from them? Am reasonably competent generally but have never played any string instrument. Happy to tune it though.