So why is this in the special offers? Well... it's not a ukulele and I don't have anywhere to put it! I probably won't offer these for a long time, but when I saw the distributor of Seagull Guitars had changed to a company I regularly order from, I wanted to reaquaint myself with this instrument, inspired by a dulcimer. I played these from time to time years ago and remember the fun I had. So thought I'd get a few in partly in the hope someone would also have fun, but also so I could experience that again myself!

These Canadian made instruments are usually tuned D, A, D, with the top string being doubled up (with the same high D). However, using the same tunes it's also possible to tune it to C, G, C. It's a diatonic instrument, with the strings being the root, the fifth and the octave of the scale. If you don't know what I am on about... basically, with that D, A, D tuning, every note you play, anywhere, will fit in the key of D. Tune it to C, G, C and all the notes it is possible to play are in the C major scale. So, if you're playing with people who are playing in the key of D, any note you hit is going to fit. You can't go wrong. So it's fun for solos as you can't play a wrong note.

There are also DAD chord charts you can download, so you can play chords too. The string spacing is slightly unusual but it's not hard to get your head around really.

However, the real reason to have one of these, for me, is just to mess around on and experiment with. The fact it'll only play notes that appear in the major scale just means you can lose hours messing around and never go wrong. It's vibrant, folky and fun.

This all solid mahogany top Seagull has a maple neck and back and sides and steel strings, which are available cheaply online as replacement sets. The scale length is similar to a baritone ukulele.

If you click additional info below there's a demo of this Seagull you can watch.