c.1940 Martin Style 1 Concert Ukulele


Jennifer, a founding member of the Vermont Ukulele Society (they operate out of Bristol, VT), visited this afternoon and showed off her "brand new" circa late 1930s, (has to be 1935+ because it has tortoise celluloid binding) or early 1940s Martin concert uke. It's fantastic, in drop-dead perfect all-original condition, plays amazing, and sounds amazing. After trying it out, I really did not want to hand it back.

So, in celebration of the uke, I snapped some photos of her and her new dream machine.



Aside from a couple of tiny dings on the back, it's perfect. I really, really want to stress that Martin ukes of this age in such nice shape really don't come up very often at all.


Jen's husband, Jim, is now a ukulele luthier and will soon be in "full production!" I'm totally expeecting him to stop by with some for me to check out, but in the meantime you can check out his website here:

http://www.vermontukulele.com

And for a further plug, the VT Uke Society is an excellent resource if you live in Vermont and want to learn uke in a friendly group environment. They're tops.

Comments

Josh said…
She might enjoy stringing it with Aquila's new "bionylon" strings -- I don't like them much on some newer ukes, but the gut-like sound and the nice feel have improved the tone of my Martin tenor from the same period.
Good call. I haven't tried the bionylon yet but I've been wanting to, since I have -so many- ukes and have plenty of testbeds for them... :)