c.1930 Harmony Soprano Ukulele
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to this new blogging experience. Let me introduce myself: I'm Jake Wildwood, and I restore vintage and antique fretted instruments from our cozy country store building up in Rochester, Vermont. I've started this blog to highlight instruments (and their history, and their repair) that I have worked on either for myself, my customers, or as stock for our store rack. I have a feeling that as people are Googling around for information on their own instruments, this small effort may help the world out! So, without further ado, my first post will be about a very good condition old Harmony soprano uke that I just finished up work on!
This is a typical 1930s soprano built by the company (out of Chicago) that has an untypical grace: the pearloid fretboard and headstock are in great condition, as are the frets. It has binding top, back, and soundhole, and the original tuners work just dandy. Polishing out the hardware went fine and dressing the frets was a nice, simple job. It's built entirely of birch, but built very lightly with a 13 7/8" scale, so it's very loud, jazzy, warm, and silky-sounding.
That was where the easy ended: the back was coming unglued at the heel, there was an open crack at the soundhole and one on the back, all of the braces were loose, and someone had been using steel strings, had ripped the bridge off, and reglued it poorly. I addressed all of these problems, removed some scuffs with polishing, and out popped an excellent uke!
Except, of course, one problem, as always: when strung up with the nylguts, there was a horrible buzz when I played a G chord... no, it wasn't from the frets, nor from the bridge... the body was simply resonating at just the right frequency to make an awful sound. Yick. I checked all the braces: all glued tight, just fine. I checked all of the usual suspects... loose kerfing, bad bridge glue... nada. I ended up gluing a very thin new brace of balsa across the lower bout close to the bridge... problem solved! No reduction in volume, sturdier top, and a powerhouse uke was reborn!
How do you like that pearl? Classy, I'd say, even if the dots are little paint specs.
Nice, cleanly-cut headstock.
I was very surprised with the quality of sound out of this black box... it's perfectly at home in modern "uke jazz" experiments that seem to be going on in this day and age, or as a kickabout gem for blues singers seeking that Hawaiian heaven. I'm used to birch ukes being loud, but not especially warm (and not muddy) or silky-smooth.
Except, of course, one problem, as always: when strung up with the nylguts, there was a horrible buzz when I played a G chord... no, it wasn't from the frets, nor from the bridge... the body was simply resonating at just the right frequency to make an awful sound. Yick. I checked all the braces: all glued tight, just fine. I checked all of the usual suspects... loose kerfing, bad bridge glue... nada. I ended up gluing a very thin new brace of balsa across the lower bout close to the bridge... problem solved! No reduction in volume, sturdier top, and a powerhouse uke was reborn!
How do you like that pearl? Classy, I'd say, even if the dots are little paint specs.
Nice, cleanly-cut headstock.
I was very surprised with the quality of sound out of this black box... it's perfectly at home in modern "uke jazz" experiments that seem to be going on in this day and age, or as a kickabout gem for blues singers seeking that Hawaiian heaven. I'm used to birch ukes being loud, but not especially warm (and not muddy) or silky-smooth.
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