Japanese Luna soprano ?

I picked up this this old uke. The label says:
Luna model no. 400
Manufactured by Luna Musical Instruments, Manufacture Co. Ltd.Tokyo Japan.
The pegs looks like brown plastic.
I checked Kiwayas site, but there was no info to be found.
It needs a needs a bit of work to get in good playing condition, so I wonder if it's worth the trouble?
Any information is welcomed.

Headstock looks like the same c1960's one in this post by Jake/Antebellum Instruments.
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2013/05/c1960-luna-baritone-ukulele.html
That's a sweet looking little soprano you have got there. I don't know if these Japanese-Luna's which are more like Kiwaya/Famous are related to the blingy/flashy Luna tattoo series that HMS sells.

It looks great to me. I'd keep it, if it sounds good.

igorthebarbarian said:

Headstock looks like the same c1960's one in this post by Jake/Antebellum Instruments.
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2013/05/c1960-luna-baritone-ukulele.html
That's a sweet looking little soprano you have got there. I don't know if these Japanese-Luna's which are more like Kiwaya/Famous are related to the blingy/flashy Luna tattoo series that HMS sells.

Click to expand...

The modern Luna brand is unrelated to these older Japanese builds.
(The modern brand is actually related to Dean, the company that is best known for pointy Metal guitars.)

Thanks Kurt - that actually makes much more sense!

river_driver said:

The modern Luna brand is unrelated to these older Japanese builds.
(The modern brand is actually related to Dean, the company that is best known for pointy Metal guitars.)

Click to expand...

Here's a bit about the older Luna ukuleles: http://database.ukulelecorner.co.uk/i-j-k/kiwaya/kiwaya4

Luna (who had a 'gakki' or factory in Okoyama) was a seperate company from, and even fierce competitor to Kiwaya. Kiwaya was originally a shop and a distribution based in downtown Tokyo, that placed orders in different 'gakkis' including Mituba/Mitsuba and Takamine. They did have their own workshop for set-ups, but they only started in-house production much later.

After a factory fire in 1965 or 1966, Luna outsourced production to Mituba/Mitsuba Gakki (based in Maebashi) and shortly afterwards sold off their business to their competitor, Kiwaya. I think Kiwaya never used the brand, but held it in a portfolio and sold it off to Armadillo Enterprises Inc (who own the Dean, Luna and Ddrum brands).

It is interesting to see how almost all those Japanese ukulele factories (save for Suzuki) were quite close to each other, in the middle of the big island Honshu.

Thanks, so this is an "old" model or one made for the european marked.

The one in the first post in an older one. And they were made for Japanese and foreign markets (with a golden 'Made in Japan' sticker).

Dang! It's beautiful!

The saddle is very thin made of some kind of plastic.The finish looks like it was applied all over (fretboard and frets too) with a brush.
My guess is that it's never been played seriously (no fret wear) and the strings are the original ones.