1950s Harmony-made Birch Stencil Ukulele

I'm pretty sure the stencil for this fellow originated in the 30s and 40s but this was certainly made later in the 50s judging by the goofy plastic fretboard. It sure cheapened the production, though... but also the product!

I got this in trade from a friend of mine and fixed it up as a beater for around here (one cannot have too many playable but funky ukes when herds of little girls visit for playtime now and then). The repair work included seam reglues, a setup, and a neck-bolting, and gluing up split and detached sides at the neck block (common on these).

Sunburst always looks good on top of birch (this thing's entirely made from the stuff).

I forgot to get a better pic of my neck-bolting, but I didn't care too much about how great it looked considering the rest of the uke. So long as it'll hold up against take-anywhere use, who cares?

Retro-futuristic tuners...

The brown chip case sealed the deal for me.