1950s K&K (United) Baritone Ukulele/Tenor Guitar Conversion

Tone: It's bright, woody, and chimey with decent sustain. Your mileage may vary depending on how you string it -- it's chirpy and mandolin-like with the CGDA (standard) tuning set that's on it. I wouldn't want to use it for GDAE (octave mandolin) tuning as it doesn't have the bass response to make that work. It would be good for DGBE tuning as well or event a "low G" uke-style GCEA.

Feel: It has a medium-heft neck with a wider nut and flat fretboard. This gives you plenty of string spacing on the board which is useful for complicated chord patterns up and down the neck.

Interesting features: The all-mahogany build has a nice look and the Brazilian rosewood board and bridge are good touches, too. It's a very spare-looking instrument. I modified this from a baritone ukulele into a "smaller than size 5" tenor guitar for its owner. These United-made instruments are overbuilt from the factory so they're a good choice for this modification and sound better as tenor guitars, to be honest. The oversize frets (with their long tangs) give the neck enough stability to handle the steel just fine, too.

Repairs included: Previously, I gave it a refret with jumbo stock, fit a new bone nut, fit high-quality StewMac tuners, added side dots, and modified the bridge cut to turn it into a pin-bridge string mount. All I had to do this time around was restring it, slightly adjust the setup, and dust it off.

• Maker: United (New Jersey)
• Model: originally a baritone ukulele
• Body style: baritone uke
• Weight: 1 lb 12 oz
• Scale length: 19"
• Nut width: 1 3/8"
• Neck shape: medium C
• Board radius: flat
• Body width: 12 3/4"
• Body depth: 10"
• Top wood: solid mahogany
• Back & sides wood: solid mahogany
• Bracing type: ladder
• Bridge: rosewood
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: solid mahogany
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 32w, 22w, 13, 9 for CGDA tuning
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: jumbo

Condition notes: There's a ton of finish weather-check and weather-crackle throughout the instrument but it's a cool look -- like a leather book cover or the like. It's been modified, of course, but overall it's fairly clean save a normal amount of light scratching/scuffing here and there throughout.

It comes with: It has an original chip case.

Consignor tag: SSC