1920s MayBell (Regal-made) Super-Soprano Curly Mahogany ukulele

I've worked on a few of this model before but the ones I've logged on the blog were way back -- check here and check here, though there are other mixed varieties of this same Regal-made body shape where a soprano-scale neck is mated to a concert-size body.

This is the prettiest version, however, with Regal's fancy yellow/green/red half-herringbone trim all over and with a body made from solid, highly-figured, Cuban mahogany. Interestingly, it has a Slingerland MayBell brand at the headstock.

It arrived here in pretty decent shape, too, though the neck angle did need a reset, the frets needed a level/dress, it needed tuners (I added geared ones for ease-of-use), and the bridge needed modification.

Tonewise, these are loud and proud with a bright, sparkly frontal sound but plenty of mellowness in the lows. It's not the sing-song "Hawaiian" sound but something like the sparkle of that sound fit to the sweetness of a Martin uke's low-end.

Note that I recut the bridge to an early Kamaka-like style of design to get the intonation and string height correct. It's not correct for the uke's styling but it's a period-correct solution. I also set this up "righty" for use in Mr. Mike Brown's studio rather than for his own, personal use.