1920s Stromberg-Voisinet (Kay) Resonator Banjo Ukulele

Bostonian wildman Mr. Chuck owns this banjo uke -- and several others of the same model. Well, almost the same, anyhow. He sent this one up to get worked-over and I'm glad he did as it had a lot of glaring (but small) issues to be addressed for it to be a proper player. Now that it's been adjusted, it plays spot-on and has that choppy, direct, and punchy tone I expect from these. The 8" head mounted on a multi-ply maple rim helps for that, but the versions of these with the full resonator (like this one) are just as good (to my ears) as many far-fancier banjo uke brands and often less shrieky, too.

Repairs included: a fret seating/glue-in job, fret level/dress, repair to a botched repair job of the headstock veneer, replacement bridge install, bolt reinforcement addition to the neck joint (hidden), cleaning, and setup.

Setup notes: the neck is straight and it plays perfectly with 1/16" action at the 12th fret overall. Strings are D'Addario fluorocarbon -- the EJ99T set.

Scale length: 13 7/8"

Nut width: 1 3/16"

String spacing at nut: 7/8"

String spacing at bridge: 1 3/8"

Head diameter: 7 7/8"
Resonator diameter: 9 1/2"

Rim depth: 2 7/8"

Rim material: ply maple, mahogany veneer

Neck wood: mahogany

Bridge: maple/ebony/plastic inserts

Neck feel: medium soft-V shape, flat board

Condition notes: it's clean throughout overall with only minor playwear and usewear. The nut and bridge are replacements and there's a bit of iffy finish at the headstock veneer just above the nut's rear edge.