1950s Favilla Baritone Ukulele

A customer of mine has been hunting-around for a good baritone uke for a while, now. He got interested in Favillas and I persuaded him to let me put a bid in on eBay on this one for him. We got it! ...and now he has one from my favorite Favilla era -- the '50s. These are mellow, sweet, and relaxed-sounding baritone ukes. Their necks feel great and they always look "friendly" after years of weather-checking and aging.

Aside from the usual repairs, he had me fit it with a K&K Twin Spot pickup, too, so it's ready to plug into your Twin... or maybe your PA.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, new Kluson-style tuners (w/added vintage buttons), two cleats for some already-repaired top cracks, general cleaning, pickup install, and setup.

Setup notes: it plays spot-on with hair-over 1/16" bass and 1/16" treble action at the 12th fret. The neck is straight and the strings are D'Addario Titaniums. I have yet to find a baritone uke string set I truly like but this set is not bad at all.

Scale length: 19"

Nut width: 1 3/8"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/8"

String spacing at bridge: 1 5/8"

Body length: 13 1/8"

Lower bout width: 9 3/4"

Waist width: 6 1/2"

Upper bout width: 7 1/4"
Side depth at endpin: 3 1/2"

Top wood: solid mahogany

Back/sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: rosewood

Bridge: rosewood

Neck feel: slim C/D shape, flat board

Condition notes: there's a few old repairs to hairline cracks and a seam bump/crunch-in on the top, lower-bout. The repairs look decades old and are good to go. The finish has weather-checked and finish-cracked everywhere -- just like you want to see on an old guy like this. The tuners are replacements but everything else (including nut/saddle) is original. It even has its original chip case!

The Kluson-style tuners are newer and from my parts-bins -- but the buttons are '60s-era ones pulled from old Harmony pegs.