Have your friend sniff around at Flea Market Music, the website for which Mark has provided a link at Flea (see also the Fluke at the same site). In the Marketplace there are often good deals to be had. I found one of my favorite ukes there.

I intend to check out the luthier in Oakland, he lives a couple of miles from me and reviews of his work have been good. For more great high end stuff see Tony Graziano, Ken Potts, and Dave Means, all of whose work can be found through Google.

Cheers,

D