NUD Glyph Soprano

Wanted to share some pictures of a Glyph I recently grabbed off ebay. Dave Means closed up his Glyph shop a few years ago, and I have had my eye out for one of his sopranos. I live near Annapolis, and Dave was happy to fix a couple minor issues and rub in some more polish. He told me it was one of the last orders he fulfilled, and the only Ditson body model he ever made (some of Ditsons that Martin made had a thicker waist, like a dreadnaught guitar). The wood is koa, and the binding is maple. The fretboard was made from a piece of Brazilian rosewood he happened to have. It plays like a dream, far better than my poor fingers can coax from it. I posted a video in the Links Video section called Leitrim Quickstep.

For those who are curious, Dave keeps his shop for the occasional warranty repair, but seems intent on making good on his plan to retire from building ukes. He is a very nice man, and has many fond memories of his work with uke players over the years. He estimates that there are about 200 Glyphs in circulation, plus a machete he made for John King. I feel lucky to have one of his instruments...

A couple more pix. By the way if anyone wants a fine Kiwaya concert, I have one in the marketplace, price just lowered.

Congrats on the Glyph soprano. They very rarely come up for sale. That was nice of Dave to go over it and fix up some things. I'll run over to the links and videos to hear how it sounds.

A holy grail uke. Congratulations!

Very nice, congratulations!

Congratulations Will, what a little beauty!

That is a very handsome instrument and seems quite the score. It's extra cool that it was the only one like that he ever made!

Thanks for the comments. Dave still lives in that cool craftsman style house pictured on his website. I am glad he is enjoying his second retirement. The uke community is a better place thanks to his contribution over the years.

Fortunately we still have guys like John Kinnard and Chuck Moore making customs in their one-person workshops, along with great companies, large and small. We're still living in the golden age of uke luthiery...

I am super jelly of this one Cheers Will and thanks for the video!

Congrats on a super uke and score...means beans