1940s Regal-made LeDomino Soprano Uke

This uke is typical for Regal's 30s-40s lower-end offerings (and is identical in build to a "rodeo" uke I worked on recently), but features an interesting spruce top over birch back/sides. It's unbraced, too, and Regal simply thickened the top to deal with the tension. It works, however -- this style of uke is fairly loud and has a direct, mellow sort of tone. It's interesting to note that the decals used on this uke would've been getting old by the time they made this version -- as they were liberally applied to LeDomino ukes and guitars in the early-mid 30s.

I worked on this for a customer and it got a bridge shave/new saddle, fret level/dress, seam repairs, new strings, and setup. She's good to go.

The broken original nut was swapped for ebony, too.

While visually the bridge is pretty close to original, I've shaved it down, installed a fret-saddle, and converted it to string-through-bridge mounting as the ledge that holds the strings on the rear was getting a bit thin for comfort.

I think I'm responsible for the decal peel on the dominoes, too -- it's awful humid here and I'm pretty sure my hand pulled it up because of the humidity while I was working on the bridge. The work, of course, will be on the house because of that. The decals on these old guys are so easy to muck-up as finish wasn't applied over them.