c.1915 Columbia Koa Soprano Ukulele


If you've been following this blog you may know that I have a sort of "thing" for koa. It's an incredible tonewood. This uke is not only entirely solid, antique koa, but the neck is simply beautiful flamed tigery greatness! This is a Columbia brand "Hawaiian Ukulele" -- probably made in Chicago -- and is built rather similarly to early Hawaiian ukes, save that the neck is a mainland-style dowel join as opposed to a Spanish heel. The body is 2" depth all around with a smaller-than-normal soundhole which gives it a responsive but yet warm and jazzy tone, as opposed to the truly snap-tastic tone usually heard on mainland ukes. Why am I telling you all this? Because I think this shows that this is an early-on mainland design, probably c.1910-1915. It even has its original wood pegs (which are quartersawn oak!).


Great pumpkin color.


Flame! Ebony nut.


Flame! Ivoroid or bone dots (not sure).


Label and simple rosette.


Curious bridge with triangular-shaped saddle.



Isn't that top grain nice?

Here's "Tiger" from the side.


And as you can see, the original finish cleaned up very well!


The flame in that neck kills me! It's also a nice, cozy shallow D shape, too.


Original quartersawn oak wood pegs!


Back.


Back grain is nice, too! There's a repaired hairline on the lower bout (try and find it).


Tickles you, doesn't it?


Another 3/4.


And another "early" pointer? The sides are made from one long piece of bent koa -- something manufacturers rarely went to the trouble to do in the much more mass-produced uke era. Looks great!
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Comments

GR said…
I have the same (well very similar) Uke except that mine has mechanical tuners. Not sure if the tuners were changed at some point in its life or if it was built that way. Also, I always thought mine was mahogony. How do you identify Koa? Although the neck of yours does look like Koa to me, the body looks a lot like mahogony from the pictures (very similar to mine) although I am no expert.
January 8, 2015 at 8:23 PM
April marskell said…
My grandfather just gave me his ukulele he bought in 1927 in Oahu it’s in pristine condition inside it says Columbia brand SIU 600 it has a rope like border all around it and it’s made solely out of Koa wood . I was looking to get more info on it .
April 23, 2022 at 7:33 PM
Unknown said…
My Columbia is made entirely of koa and has the rope border. It also has a stripe of koa down the neck which is different from the rest of the neck. The ukulele has wood pegs. I believe that Jake Wildwood’s is koa also which is distinguished by the striped grain. I am curious how Jake knows the year his may have been made? I wonder if the ones with the rope borders are later, perhaps made in the 1920’s. The body of mine is in great shape, but the back has some sort of finish which was added and is pretty unsightly. I hope to find someone to remove that finish and perhaps string the ukulele and tune it. Jake sounds very busy and mine seems a small job. Any thoughts, anyone? Please email comments to susankinder@comcast.net (not the gmail one shown below).
May 20, 2022 at 4:22 PM
AMS said…
I just acquired one almost identical to yours. The only difference is there's no flame to the neck on mine. It appears to be 100% original, near mint condition. The only damage, is that there's a small piece of wood broken off of the top of one of the tuning pegs. It was kept with no strings (so no warping or bowing over the last hundred years) in its original case.

I'm just wondering, what's this thing worth? I've seen a few numbers online ranging from $150 to $600. Mine appears to be in better shape than all of then, though. Any idea on value?
April 27, 2023 at 12:29 AM
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