Who here plays vintage ukuleles?

Tigershark

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Does anybody else play vintage ukuleles? Or are most on the forum more interested in the modern instruments. I was just thinking I don't see a lot of discussion of the old stuff.
 
Hate to be one of those...but if you do a search you will find that there are a lot of vintage players here. I have a 1920's Style O and a 50's O. What do you play?
 
We're around. I have a 40s/50s Martin Style 1, and a 20s Kumalae. The Martin is everything I hoped for sound wise even though it looks like it's been played hard. But I got it's history when I bought it, so I appreciate why it looks the way it does. The Kumalae is a quiet sweet sounding little instrument with lots of character. These have whetted my appetite for more vintage in the future.
 
I recently acquired a La Foley soprano, probably from the 1920s. It is a little gem, as light as a feather, and sounds wonderful. How it has survived all these years I'll never know, but I hope it lasts a few more.
 
I have a mix of old and new... on the old side I have a c.1960 Silvertone bari, and a c.1925? Supertone. And a c.1940 Silvertone soprano arriving tomorrow! Oh, and sturdy old plastic fretboard Harmony that's currently on loan to Mom.

(FWIW, I suggested we have a separate vintage section on the forums a few months ago... that got shut down pretty fast...)
 
I've got a 50s/60s Martin Style 1 Soprano. It is a bit of a battered survivor, but is sound in wind and limb, and I love it. I used to have a very tidy Style 0 of similar age, but it was so nice, I didn't want to risk dinging or scratching it, so it hardly ever got played. I sold it, and ended up with my old warrior Style 1 which I am happy to take anywhere.

John Colter.
 
I have a 1960's Giannini baritone that has to be one of the best vintage ukes out there (especially for the $300-500 price range!).
The tone is so mellow and warm, and it's full of good depth that a lot of ukes would probably lack without age. I wouldn't necessarily say that my baritone (or vintage ukes in general) are better than their contemporary counterparts, but there's something about the ones that are still around that have such character to them - something that makes them a worthy consideration in tandem with ukes that are being birthed today.
I've contemplated selling him a couple of times, but really, it wouldn't be worth it in the end! Brad Ranola at USpace/Anacapa tried it and he loved it so much (I think he has a Harmony bari??) that after trying my Giannini, he would try and find his own on eBay haha!
The fretwork is a bit shoddy, but the sound and the feel really cover over that. I think most ukers would be concerned with build quality of vintage ukes, which is why they turn to modern ones, seeing as how we have machines that make cuts to the nanometer these days... uber precision beats out vintage tone, I guess!
 
I do. To me, nothing beats the tone of a lightly built instrument made of mahogany tha'ts aged a good number of years.
 
My "John Grey & Sons" banjolele is probably from the '30's ... I play it when I want that "banjolele sound" 'cos it's the only banjolele I've got ;)

I've also got an old Skylark soprano, maybe '60's or '70's, found it cheap, still in it's original box, with fragments of the original silk-wound strings attached. It wears a generic set of black nylons now (sounds kinky!). Tuned up to D (high A) it sounds a little more lively than when tuned down to C, so I leave it like that. It's nothing special, but the violin-style tuning pegs raise an eyebrow from those knowledgeable enough to recognise the difference ... and yes, they're a pig to tune !
 
I have a vintage Martin O I got in 1951 for my 10th birthday, and I acquired a Kamaka 71-72 White Label soprano not long ago. All my others are "modern"
 
Well, maybe it's not as bad as I thought :)

The Martin models from the first wave of ukulele madness (1915 - 1930s) inspire me so much. Washburn made some fantastic instruments in the 1920s and 30s, but I don't currently have one.

I get why people play modern instruments, but I am just more excited about playing when it's on an old Martin.
 
I love anything old made of mahogany. I have several including a Washburn 700 from the early 20's, a 50ish Martin O, a late 40's Gibson tenor, a Beltone teardrop soprano (I believe made by Favilla) a 20s Maxitone, a B&J soprano, as well as a few other vintage Ukes in other woods. Old mahogany is my favorite though...can't buy new "old" wood!
 
We're around. I have a 40s/50s Martin Style 1, and a 20s Kumalae. The Martin is everything I hoped for sound wise even though it looks like it's been played hard. But I got it's history when I bought it, so I appreciate why it looks the way it does. The Kumalae is a quiet sweet sounding little instrument with lots of character. These have whetted my appetite for more vintage in the future.

We have a Harmony baritone too. But aquadan turned out not to be a baritone guy (so I'll just go ahead and claim that one).

I don't fool with them, no.

Hah! The heck you don't. Lol. ;)
 
I play my Martin Style 1 very often. Like others have said, old mahog is a wonderful thing...
 
My first vintage one was a 1950's Kay birch soprano, I knew it needed work when I bought it, and is still waiting for that work to be done to it when I get time. But, it cost next to nothing and is just neat to look at.

My second one was an unknown camp style ukulele that is made of plywood - probably 40's-50's. As with the Kay, it needs work, but it is great for anything chorded on the first three frets. I bought those two while waiting for my HMS Luna to come in.

My third one was a 50's Harmony soprano with the plastic fretboard. I loved the sound of the ones in the videos here on the forum. It is the smallest of all my ukuleles. Getting ready to put some Martin M600's on it.

My latest is the only one that is really playable - a 1940's Silvertone solid mahogany super soprano that has Aquila Reds. That is my go-to for a vintage sound. It was my travel ukulele to New York City this summer and I got to play it in Strawberry Fields. As others have said, it is super light one and has a wonderful glow to the wood.

I bought the last two while waiting for my Outdoor Ukulele Tenor package. Glad I didn't wait :)
 
I live and breathe vintage! I've got...well, a few. I'm lucky to have vintage Ukes ranging from the 1890's to the 1950's. I play and enjoy the heck out of them all.
 
I have an old T.V. Pal that I play 3 or 4 times a year. It has a crack in the body, but still sounds pretty amazing for a ukulele made out of authentic 1950's plastic, lol...
 
Me too. I've had new ukuleles (say, built in the last 20 years) but they don't seem to stick and are the first ones to be sacrificed when I have to sell some.

It has nothing to do with monetary value: a late 1990s National Reso-Phonic went out, and I've kept a cheap plywood 1970s uke for the last 10 years. Although 'old' seems to hold its resale value a little better than 'new'.

It also isn't really about musical value (sound, playability), because the Polk-a-lay-lee is frankly unplayable (you can squeeze tunes out of it, not much more) while the national and even some magic fluke ones I sold were pro instruments (as in, you could use them for making a living out of music, or blend in with a serious band).

I think it's because I like old stuff in general. I even like a worn chair better than a new one. Prefer a wind-up clock to a digital one. The illusion that something that survived decades must be of a good quailty, perhaps? (not always true: some old stuff is well-preserved because no-one ever liked using it - why did that stuff end up in the attic anyway?). Yes, they had better wood supplies in the olden days, and wood does open up, and labor was cheap so time was taken during the manufacture, but seriously if you blind-test a 300$ antique uke against 300$ new one I wouldn't dare to take a bet. Play that old Dobro slightly wrong and it starts buzzing like a bee.

Perhaps it's also because older instruments are a bit dented and scratched. I'm clumsy, and it's heartbreaking to make the first scratch on a new instrument. But hey, when someone broke it in before you, it's easy! I don't have mint antique ukuleles, some of them even underwent major surgery. I don't mind taking even the expensive old ukuleles out, I've had 8-year olds playing my 1930s Gibsons and tiple (okay, fair, I did tell first them not to smash them).

But I think the main reason is rarity, and that I like to stand out. Silly really. Not having the same ukulele as my neighbor, you know. Although my neighbors don't actually even have one.
 
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