Lots of emails!

For those of you sorely sad you missed out on that Mele flamed koa uke (and I know there were a lot of you from the stacks of emails in my inbox) -- I just wanted to let you know that this uke -- a 1920s Regal -- from my personal collection, is soon going up on the 'bay. It's super loud -- I used it in a musical, entirely acoustically, and it paced a resonator Vega tenor banjo when strummed with a felt pick. It also sounds great, and is entirely made from flamed Hawaiian koa. And it has that sweet multicolored inlaid marquetry Regal-style decorative touch, too.

Yessir, it's a beaut.

...and why am I parting with it? Too many instruments! It's not like I want to part with it!!!

c.1920 Mele Flamed Mahogany Soprano Ukulele

Update 2013: I've updated all the info here except for the pictures. This was recently traded back to me towards a different instrument, so it's now available again!

Nice instrument! This one plays great, sounds great, and looks great. It's built from solid flamed mahogany in a pretty ginger-ale golden brown all over and shimmers in the sun like some sort of crazed jewel. While the label reads "Mele" this was certainly made by Harmony in Chicago.

At any rate, work on this one included two hairline repairs (tell me if you see them, hey?), brace reglue, replacement 12th fret (with a period 12th), cleaning, setup, etc.

Did I mention it's bound top, back, and soundhole with wooden rope binding?

...the original finish has crackled here and there but is still in nice shape and gives a good "three dimensional" effect to the heavy flame all over.

Original bakelite pegs.

...and waaaay cool inlaid strip of marquetry down the middle of the neck. Totally "Hawaiian style."

...here you can see some of that flame on the top.

And ba-bam! LOVELY flame back there, huh?

c.1920 Victoria Mandolin

Here's a nice little Victoria, possibly made by Oscar Schmidt? (though it lacks the typical square kerfing you'd expect under the top of an OS)... flatback mandolin. Top is spruce, with "tortoise" inlaid pickguard, back and sides of birch. Bone nut, original ebony/bone bridge, and after cleaning and oiling some just-dandy functional brass-plate tuners with bakelite buttons. It's bound along the top and soundhole with an inlaid backstrip. MOP dots inlaid on an ebony fretboard.

Work done included brace reglues, cleaning, multiple hairline crack repairs to the back, setup, etc. It's a real easy player with a nice direct, but rich tone. It actually sounds a lot like the Washburn bowlback I posted a few entries earlier... which is to say: precise, sweet, with no harshness in the treble or sloppiness in the bass. I like.

The neck is dead straight with frets that have a little playwear but nothing major, lending to a cleanly-playing 1/16" to under 1/8" action... cozy.

Brass-plate tuners w/bakelite knobs. Working great after a bit of cleaning and oiling.

Here you can see those filled/repaired cracks catching some edgewise light.

Tailpiece sans cover, but plenty functional.

Now to embarass my customers...

A little birdy mentioned that there were some videos of a certain Stella tenor being played up on YouTube. I think it certainly landed in capable hands!



And here's a Mr Chesler on his lovely little Camp Uke...



Way to go fellas!

Upcoming

Some new posts are below, if you've been patiently waiting for me to take photos...! I also have some more instruments coming up in the next few days/weeks. Here's the list so far:

c.1920 Oscar Schmidt "Victoria" flatback mandolin, c.1930 Regal tiple spruce & mahogany, c. 1955 Kay tenor guitar spruce & mahogany, c.1920 Mele ukulele w/flamed koa, c.1920 fancy inline-rim style banjo uke with lots of inlaid marquetry, c.1900 fancy American Conservatory (by L&H) bowlback mandolin w/rosewood bowl, c.1920 SoCal MusicCo koa soprano uke, c.1935 "Radio Tone" by Regal flat-top (but archtop style round hole) guitar spruce & mahogany.

Also, I'll have a customer's higher-end Regal tenor guitar all gussied up and ready to go, and another customer's early 80s Daion double-neck acoustic guitar.

c.1915 Lange-built Tenor Banjo

These are great, simple, and super-sounding tenors. Like other Lange-built catalog-sold banjos of the period (a lot were sold by Sears under the Supertone name and Lyon & Healy sold some through their catalogs, too), this one has a double-spun rim, which means the "German silver" cladding curls over on both sides of the thin-wall maple rim and forms a nice cover on the bottom and an integral "tone ring" on the top. This gives a distinct, sweet, pretty loud, and rich tone. It's not at all harsh or brash like some later thick maple rims with hoop-style tonerings.

I've taken it all apart, cleaned it all up, polished up the hardware (removing tarnish), put it all back together, and set it up. Plays real easy. It's all-original except for a new cherry nut, new Grover bridge, and strings. The original head is showing wear here and there but still going strong.

Headstock has a big white inlaid celluloid star. The fretboard and headstock veneer look like ebony but are more than likely some sort of dyed fruitwood.

Nickel-silver frets, MOP dots, with one replaced (but period parts-bin) dot at the 12th fret.

Great looking old-timer.

This pot (and all its hardware) was blackened with tarnish and filth before. It's always nice to see a pot like this looking proud again. I forgot to mention that two of the hooks and nuts are replaced, too, but with some parts-bin period replacements.

Here you can see the nice old friction tuners with the grained ivoroid buttons. Of all the friction tuner designs these are my favorite as they rarely, rarely give up the ghost.

It even has its original ebony neck brace shims. Here I've added a parts-bin dowel/rim guard plate so those shims don't rub up against the rim interior.

And to top it all off an original Elite no-knot style tailpiece. Gotta love its simplicity.