Vintage Harmony ukulele: replacing a broken bridge

This is sort of a good news/bad news post.  The  good news is that the original tuning machines on this Harmony uke didn't need to be replaced as I originally thought.  They just needed a little tightening up.  The bad news is that when I went to string this sucker up, I heard a brief cracking sound and then a very loud SNAP!  The front part of the bridge must have had a crack that I couldn't see and it gave way under the tension of the strings pressing down and ever so slightly forward on the saddle.  But I guess it's not all that bad...at least now I get to show you

Vintage Harmony Ukulele: replacing the nut

need to do some sanding to get this old glue off

There we go!  Sanded, cleaned up, and ready for a new nut.

The next step to getting this old Harmony uke back into playing condition was to install a new nut.  If you need to replace the nut on your uke, taking off the old one is pretty simple.  Any nuts I've taken off in the past haven't been glued on super well and easily popped off with a pair of pliers and a little bit of force.  There was no nut on this one, which allowed me to skip that step.

As you can see in the first picture, there is still a bit of dry glue where the previous nut was sitting.  This needs to be sanded off before installing the

Vintage Harmony Ukulele: replacing the saddle

with the old saddle removed

Sliding in the new saddle

Just a little bit more....

Hurray

 The first thing that I tackled on this project was replacing the saddle.  The original saddle (not pictured) was a black piece of plastic and was pretty worn.  Not the most desirable saddle choice.  


 I'm happy to have found this uke in a local antique store for $20...but I also don't want to sink a ton

Vintage Harmony ukulele repair project

 I went with my wife and daughter to the antique store yesterday and stumbled upon this vintage Harmony soprano ukulele.  A little info about the harmony company taken from easyukulele.com

The Harmony Ukulele Company went out of business in 1975. Their name, however, is a familiar site to anyone who plays the ukulele. For the greater part of the 20th Century, this name was synonymous with ukuleles for most people. They made both traditional