Los Angeles, CA -- More music fans are strung out on ukuleles than ever before -- and that's got one Los Angeles uke maker yelling "hula-lujah."

Jim Beloff makes and sells a type of uke he calls the "Fluke" and says he's sold more than 10,000 in the last five years.

He figures the craze is just beginning since lots of guitar players have started taking ukuleles on trips because they're more portable -- "especially with a suitcase and a laptop."

The ukulele is associated with Hawaii, but not everyone who is taking the instrument up is playing hula music.

Beloff says Tom Petty and Eddie Vedder compose songs on the uke and some "post punk" ukulele players subvert the instrument's happy image by making aggressive, angry music with it.

Beloff is also the author of "The Ukulele: A Visual History" (Backbeat Books), which just came out in its second edition.

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