1950s Harmony Birch Soprano Ukulele

The label style and plastic fretboard say: "I'm a '50s uke!"

This model of Harmony uke can be found at yard sales, on eBay, Craigslist, and wherever people are cleaning-out attics, barns, and closets. They were made in a great number in the '50s and '60s and feature solid-birch bodies, poplar necks, "space age" friction pegs, and plastic fretboards.

To keep the manufacturing simple, Harmony didn't bother with any sort of bracing on these ukes -- instead deciding to thicken-up the top about twice as much compared to their more-upscale mahogany ukes (and their own down-market '30s ukes) to keep them stable. This lends these a chunky, mellow, sweet sound that seems to be the same as the amalgamated cultural memory of "what a uke sounds like."

Yeah, it's no Kamaka. Let's just say that. Still, it's fun.

All I had to do on this particular one (it was bought by its owner to give to a kid to learn on) is restring it and set it up, but I also drilled tiny holes under the bridge for "through-stringing" -- which I've done. Weirdly, this has a 12 7/8" scale length rather than something more normal like 13" and over.