I started off with a chinese makala tenor,cost about £40, throw away the original strings & replace with aquilar nylogut strings they will transform the tone of any budget uke, however no matter what strings you use it always seems to take about 2 weeks for them to bed in & stabilise the tuning,quality of machine heads makes no difference to this either,it is quite frustrating but you just have to live with it .Never looked back since getting into uke's, tune mine DGBE as I prefer slacker string tension, great for playing blues & take up no space whatsoever. mike b.
I made a Tenor Uke when the wife was pregnant - at the moment baby is 8months and much prefers playing with my 1937 regal resonator. It could be that she has good taste, or it could simply be that its the loudest thing she can pluck on
actually i think the open tuning helps as it always sounds vaguely musical when its strummed