c.1920 Curly Mahogany Soprano Ukulele

Another good'n probably from Harmony, c.1920... you can see these as middle-of-the-road upscaled ukes in the old Sears catalogs. Originally with wood pegs, there was just one broken one remaining when I picked this fellow up. Nice mellow curly-ish solid mahogany all throughout, original finish all intact, with some good-looking playwear.

Work entailed a neck set, fret dress, front hairline crack repair plus cleating and cleating of an old hairline crack repair, setup, and a set of new tuners. And the usual cleaning. The result is a responsive, sweet-sounding, decently loud, and really-easy-to-play uke suited to strumming in either C or D tuning. The tone is the kind of sound you'd like to carry with you to secluded beaches and romantic getaways... but alas -- where's our vacation time gone?!

Rope binding on the top edge and inlaid around the soundhole.

Rosewood nut.

Now that the frets are dressed, this fellow's quite happy and plays slick.

Previous owner had reglued the bridge too forward. I've set it back to its proper location and reglued it so it won't come up again for another 90+ years.

Hard to see the curl in the photos but it's there. Looks really nice in good sunlight.

The back, sides, and neck's original finish is still nice and glossy. The front, after many years of good play, is a bit more muted.

New Grover tuners with their components shuffled around a bit (Jake fashion) to more resemble old tuners. They also don't leave nasty imprints this way if you ever decide to use wood pegs again.