c.1925 Stella "Emerald City" Banjo Ukulele

Another double post day! This uke is entering my private collection today because it's simply too fun to let go of (at the moment) and I've never seen one like it before. I used to have a Stella tenor banjo that Bonnie's folks found for me that had practically the same construction as this guy, but was a dark walnuty brown color. This one is a thin rim with a 7" head and a nice simple resonator. It's absurdly spartan (just 8 hooks and a thin non-adjustable tailpiece) but has what few other banjo ukes have: a uke-style neck, nice and wide and thin, as opposed to a mandolin-style neck. Oh, and yes, it's also Emerald City Green, too.

It's all-original except for the bridge and strings: the bridge is mahogany off of a 1960s Japanese banjo (I've recut it for uke spacing). Like other Stella products of the time, this was made by Oscar Schmidt out of Jersey City, NJ.

Headstock. As typical for ukes of this era, the nut was cut horribly (just about every vintage uke needs its nut slots trimmed down quite a bit) but now it feels just right.

Green fretboard: before cleaning these frets and the board itself up there were traces of ink on the fretboard -- I think this uke probably had those old stickers with the notes on each fret on it at some point.

Bridge and tailpiece.

Side view.

To preserve the paint, I've rubbed in a light coat of varnish all over. I'm always worried about paint flecking off on old painted instruments.

Resonator.


Bakelite pegs.


Funny glittery decal.


Tailpiece again.


Overview.