1920s Martin Taropatch Concert Ukulele

Originally marketed as "taro patch fiddles," this early Martin uke is essentially just an 8-string, concert-sized instrument. We generally refer to them as taropatch ukes these days or just taropatch. This one, like its other ukes in the Martin lineup, is a Style 1 which means it's a basic, mahogany-throughout instrument with the most basic (rosewood, in this case) binding.

When new, it would have been strung in unison (each course with both strings at the same pitch) like a "super ukulele," but when I work on these I usually restring them with the Worth C8 string set which gives octave stringing for the G&C courses (and, being Worths, gives you a full extra set of the strings in the same set). This gives the instrument more of a charango-style lilt... and it's soooo pretty-sounding.

This is a customer's instrument that was in for repair. Jose did a level/dress of the frets and I gave it a neck reset, replaced a missing tuner peg, and set it all up. It was otherwise in good order when it arrived (remarkably). It's a beautiful and rare little thing and I'm mildly-jealous of its owner. If it were mine I might have splurged for a set of Gotoh UPTs at the headstock but that's both non-original in looks and would have added considerably to the cost of the instrument. I like their ease of use over wood pegs, though!

I've modified the bridge only slightly -- I drill a small hole hidden in the string-mounting "slot" at the back of the bridge for these so I can "string-through" the strings and thus avoid excessive wear on the bridge. Traditionally, one balls-up the string ends with multiple knots and then just shoves them into the rear slot on the bridge, crosses one's fingers, and hopes that the slots don't tear-out over time.

I find passing the string through the tiny hole in the slot (and thus into the inside of the instrument and protruding through the bridge plate), pulling it out the soundhole, balling the end with knots, and then clipping the end and snugging it back up (and then up to the tuner) means that these bridges last a lot longer and there's a lot less stress put on them as the ball-ends are tensioned-up against the bridge plate rather than the very rear of the bridge. If the owner decides to string "as-normal," the tiny hole is hidden anyway, so both methods can be used without uglying-up the uke.