1920s Lyon & Healy Camp Uke Soprano Ukulele

How many Camp Ukes have I worked on? So many! This one is the most usual, final-variation type with a simple flat back instead of a resonator-style back or thicker, turned back. Some L&H catalogs purported these to be made from monkeypod wood, however others claim that they're made from nyssa which is a fancy way to say tupelo or black gum. I'm now of the opinion that these were almost all made from nyssa -- which means updating plenty of old blog posts, for sure.

All that aside, a customer had me purchase this for him on Reverb.com so I could work it over and then ship it on to him. It'd seen some work in the past including a few cleats to hairline cracks on the top and a neck that'd been mystery-glued (rather than left "just bolted") to the body. That latter bit means that my usual neck reset job couldn't be performed, though I did get everything else going: this got more cleats to cracks, fill/seal jobs to them, a fret level/dress, second bolt install in the bottom of the heel for stability's sake, a bridge shave to lower action, and a good setup with Martin fluorocarbon strings. The neck is straight and it plays like a champ.

Specs are: 13" scale, 1 1/8" nut width, 1 1/16" string spacing at the nut, 1 5/8" spacing at the bridge, 1/16" action height at the 12th fret (spot-on), 7" diameter body, 2 1/4" side depth. The neck has a medium-sized, C-shaped profile and flat "integral" fretboard. The instrument is all-original except for a set of new tuners added by the last repairman and some black side dots I added.

The top is bound in black celluloid and the bridge is the Washburn-style "smile" type in mahogany.

The plate at the headstock is for a Providence, Rhode Island music store.