c.1955 Favilla Baritone Ukulele

Speaking of Favillas... (see last post)... here's a mid-50s Favilla baritone uke (made in New York) I worked on for a customer. It had extensive repairs -- multiple hairline cracks needed cleating and filling, there were many "sprung seams" that needed regluing, the saddle needed to be shaved and the frets leveled and dressed, and it needed a good setup as well.

It's come "out of the fire" as I expected it to: a very nice instrument, indeed! There's a reason vintage Favillas are desirable on the bari uke market: they sound and feel great and are easily in the realm (tone-wise) of Martin baris.

This has all-mahogany construction with rosewood board and bridge. Both the nut and saddle are bone and the top bracing is very light which is why the tone is so full. Because of that, though, high-tension string setup seems to overwhelm these instruments and I've sen a number of them with that typical "belly" behind the bridge I expect more on steel-string guitars.

The frets were very worn before leveling & dressing which leads me to believe that someone had steel on here at some point. Tsk, tsk.

Good quality mahogany is used throughout.

I love the small, sculpted heel on these guys. It's very elegant.