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.

Vintage Banjo Ukulele Buying Tips - part 2

In the last post banjo ukulele expert, John Bianchi gave us some vintage banjo ukulele buying tips and advice.  In this post, John gives us a break down on a TON of different vintage banjo ukes.  Again, I must express my appreciation to John for taking the time to write this up for us.  Hope you enjoy the rest of his article!  And don't forget to do yourself a favor and check out his blog.

http://theukaholic.blogspot.com/

The Banjo Ukulele:

Tips for Buying Vintage

By John Bianchi

Finally, here are a few brand recommendations for prospective buyers.

Vintage Banjo Ukulele Buying Tips - part 1

I recently had an inkling to share some tips for buying vintage banjo ukuleles.  It's a subject that I admittedly don't know a lot about it, so instead of trying to push forward on my own, I asked for some help from banjo uke guru John Bianchi.  In addition to knowing almost EVERYTHING about old banjo ukes, John is a very fine player.  Thanks John for being awesome and passing along all this buying advice!  This is the first of a two part article.  Click here for part 2 where John breaks down all the different makes and models of banjo ukes!

Check out his blog here.

Check out his Youtube here.

The Banjo Ukulele:

Tips for Buying Vintage

By John Bianchi

If you’re new to playing the banjo ukulele, you may hear more experienced players
recommend vintage banjo ukes as having a different sound and feel than the current
generation of the hybrid instruments. And while its true that vintage ukes have the
potential to be great instruments, it can be daunting to approach buying one. But,
there are a few tips that can help you make the right choice when considering a
vintage banjo ukulele.

Interview w/ Jake Wildwood of Antebellum Instruments

"They don't make 'em like they used to".  It's an old cliché that rings particularly true with Jake Wildwood of Antebellum Instruments.  Jake spends his days fixing up and reviving pre-WWII instruments out of his family's Rochester, Vermont store.  He certainly picked a good name!  The word "antebellum" is a Latin phrase that literally means "before the war".

On the Antebellum Instruments site, you can check out what Jake is currently working on via his running blog (something that I spend WAY too much time looking at).  You also have the opportunity to buy one of these pieces of musical history - ukuleles, banjos, guitars, mandolins, etc. 

There is a group of people in this world that are absolutely fascinating to me - people who have stories and anecdotes to pass along to you...people who seem like they've done it all....people who are just plain interesting.  From my brief correspondence with Jake, I would have to put him in this category.  I enjoyed every bit of his responses to my questions and I hope you will too!

Is your ukulele solid wood or laminate?

With most new ukuleles, the manufacturer will be pretty clear about whether the ukulele is made from solid wood or laminate...but sometimes they like to stretch the truth a bit.  And what about those vintage ukes that there is little info about on the web?  How do you tell if your ukulele is solid wood or laminate?

Barry Maz of www.gotaukulele.com suggests a couple of ways to check in this article.

Two of the solid wood "tests" involve looking at the grain on the inside of the sound hole and looking inside your ukulele with a flashlight to see if the inside grain matches up with the pattern of the outside grain.

Some generally good advice and it helped me determine that one of my vintage ukes is solid wood.  

Where to buy your next ukulele

Before you jump the gun and grab your next ukulele from a random retailer on Amazon, consider this....a good setup can make a world of difference in sound, intonation, and overall playability.  Don't know what a setup is?  Check this blog post for some helpful links about ukulele setup.

There are a couple of online sellers that have become notorious for the awesome job they do setting up your instrument.  And as kind of a bonus, I've included the link to an Etsy shop that many folks aren't aware of that sells vintage ukes and banjo ukes.  Us Etsy shop owners have to stick together!

Uke Republic

Just ask anyone in the ukulele community about these guys.  Not only do they have some great deals on some sweet ukes, but the setup they perform on all their ukes is

Revamping your old ukulele tuning machines

Some of us just really love vintage ukuleles!  I get a big kick out of playing an instrument that is 50+ years old.  But one of the problems that I've encountered in my collection of vintage ukes is that often the tuning machines aren't functioning properly.  The usual culprit is years and years of sitting idly in someone's attic, closet, garage, etc.  To make matters worse, today's standard tuning machines are often to big to fit the little holes drilled into the ukes of yesteryear.

Replacing those old tuning machines can be done, but it can be quite an arduous task.  A tapered reamer (like this one offered by Grizzly) is a handy tool to have for widening up those holes a bit...and it's a much

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