c.1920 Anahu Koa Soprano Ukulele

This is the 3rd of 8 koa ukes I'm working on for a customer. This one is branded "Anahu" and that corresponds to maker James N. Anahu, a smaller uke builder in the 20s. It's a pretty plain uke and very similar to most other Hawaiian makes of the time.

Work was the usual: fret level/dress, bridge recut and reglue, seam repairs, a new mid-brace below the soundhole, cleaning, and setup. This has a happy, bell tonality to it and a very cool decal a the headstock.

The pegs are new but the rest of the uke is original. That decal is pretty slick!

The brass frets were pretty wonky before work. I had to seat a lot of these back down as they were pulling up at the edges.

Even though this bridge wound up having to be recut pretty low, I still managed to save the usual slot/hole loading configuration at the rear.

Koa sure is pretty stuff -- I love the colors on the sides. Note the popped-out upper brace. That's normal for a lot of old ukes where the braces swelled or stayed the same while the koa shrank.

 

Like most Hawaiian ukes, the back is arched vs. flat which increases projection and clarity.

Cute endstrip, too!