1930s Concertone Banjo Ukulele




I've lost track of how many of these I've worked-on as they're widely distributed. This one wears the Concertone brand but it's the same instrument that I've seen more-often with the MayBell or Slingerland brands. I used to think these were made by Regal for Slingerland, but I'm not so sure anymore.

In any case, they're durable, well-built, and practical banjo-ukes. You don't have to baby them at all and if you're of the inclination, their necks are sturdy-enough to take steel strings (hint: mandolin players might like these as pint-size 4-string banjo-mandos).

My work included a fret level/dress, hidden bolt-reinforcement of the neck joint, a new bone nut, cleaning, side dots install, and a good setup with Martin fluorocarbon strings. I like to add a bit of dampening behind the head on the long-scale versions of these (this one is almost 14" vs earlier 13" versions) as the bridge location tends to make them pingy without it -- so I've done that, too. It plays spot-on with 1/16" action at the 12th fret and a healthy, ~1/2" bridge.

Specs are: 13 7/8" scale, 1 1/4" nut width, 1" string spacing at the nut, 1 5/16" spacing at the bridge, 6 7/8" head diameter, and 2 1/4" side depth. The neck has a medium, V-shaped rear and a flat fretboard. There's no tonering.

Woods are: maple neck, ply-maple rim with maple veneer. The instrument is 100% original except for the bridge -- which is a period one from my parts-bins -- and the new bone nut which replaced an ailing original wood one. The face dots are pearl.



I added 4 extra washers to the rear side of the bakelite-buttoned friction pegs to help them turn a little more smoothly. While they work fine, I personally always use Gotoh 4:1 geared pegs on my ukes -- though that's a ~$70 upgrade.









The rosewood shim that's wedged into the dowel is the original neck brace which keeps the neck snug to the rim. If you look closely, you can see a small circle peeking out from behind it in the rim. That's where I've reinforced this joint with a countersunk screw running into the heel as well. It makes the instrument more stable season-to-season and means a neglectful-of-maintenance owner won't come back to the uke and find the action randomly-high one day after a wild humidity swing.



As you can see, it's not the cleanest instrument: it's a little grungy overall but that's part of the charm.




It's nice to have the original tailpiece still extant. These often go missing.

Comments

Unknown said…
Looks like mine was given to me at age 6byms Ella Barron , she said it was her father's
JFarn said…
I have a vintage Concertone Banjo Ukelele and I'm looking for a replacement parts supplier. Got any leads?
I have a Concertone Banjo Ukelele that I'm trying to get up and playing again, Do you have any contacts that might have parts available or be able to tell me where to look?
Tkw1234 said…
What is the height of the bridge? 1/2. 5/8?