Kamaka Ukulele - White and Gold Labels

Kamaka Ukulele is one of the oldest and most respected uke makers in the business.  Kamaka was founded in 1916 by Samuel Kaialiilii Kamaka who had already been building koa ukes since the beginning of the century. 

If you've done any amount of ebay ukulele window shopping, chances are that you've seen some vintage Kamaka's.  You might have noticed that some of these ukes are described as "white label" or "gold label".  So what in the heck does that mean?  The "white label" and "gold label" tags have become a very convenient way to date Kamaka's back to 1954.

Here's one of the gold labels.  Kamaka ukuleles with this label were produced from 1954-1969.

And here's the white label that was used from 1969-2001.

That's basically the long and the short of it, but if you want to see more Kamaka labels from the pre-1954 era, check out the Unofficial Kamaka Ukulele blog.