For fun, let's consider ukuleles are still fairly new instruments, who would you consider to be the current and potentially future Stradivari of the ukulele world?
As to the replies above on opening up good points are made about the quality of the build as well as materials, which I probably didn't assert fully enough in my first reply but those are absolutely essential. There does seem to be a Darwinian survival factor of better crafted instruments present today, considering only a relative handful of the multitudes of stringed wooden instruments made over the past few centuries still exist. If those instruments weren't living up to their full potential at the time they were built, or even after a century, then what made them survive till today, aside from historic preservation? Something about their sound made them "survivors". Probably the most valuable things we've gleaned from these example, already mentioned, are being utilized in newer less expensive orchestral instruments made in China. The makers use better tone woods and are copying the build and design of those "survivors". Also worth mentioning are varnishing materials and methods (but that can fall into anecdotes too).
Anyway, this is a long contemplation I've edited and shortened a few times, but let's just say enjoy your ukulele and chances are it'll sound better the more you play it, especially after you purchase it new. Hand it down in your will and hope someone in a future generation will continue playing it as it moves towards it's peak timbre.
