This is handsome looking Pono BE-6, with a scale just longer than a regular baritone (20”), with 6 strings. It is a chambered body instrument, with a beautifully clean-sounding passive pickup, and is supplied in an excellent, perfectly fitted hard case.

Pono advertise this as being able to support different tunings - and it works well with regular E to E guitar tuning for a start. For a little more ‘zing’, they also suggest tuning up a step and a half from G to G (so, G C F Bb D G). In both cases the sound is clean and rich, with a real classical guitar type tone. It can also take Guitalele / Guilalele tuning, A to A - though I would fit a specific set of strings for that. But I’ve been fine tuning E to E or G to G with the same set that is fitted (D’addario hard tension classical guitar strings).

That’s the only thing with new and interesting instruments like this, the description is a bit dry as you end up just going on and on about what it is actually is! However, I can say that this is an exciting instrument because it sounds so good. The nut width is 45mm, which is wide enough I find to hit chords cleanly, without being too much of a stretch, and while it’s more guitar-like with its 6 strings, that scale length feels more familiar for ukulele players. (One small point - I’ve looked and found various nut widths for this - but my measurement was done just now, by me, not relying on any references!)

Acoustically there’s enough volume to play quietly and practice, but it needs to be plugged in. When you do so, you can easily lose sense of time as you explore how lovely it sounds through the Pono custom passive pickup.