Jerome collector
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2017
- Messages
- 85
- Reaction score
- 86
I joined Ukulele Underground a few weeks ago, but this is my first post. My wife and I dipped our toes in the vintage ukulele market last month, when we purchase a circa 1958 gold label Kamaka ukulele. My reason for believing it dates to 1958 is that, under bright light and magnification, I'm pretty certain I can see "58" (my wife thinks I'm hallucinating), along with other indecipherable letters and possibly numbers, written in faint pencil on the brace inside the body where the neck attaches. In doing research on our purchase, I ran across a 1958 advertisement for Kamaka that shows three models. One of the models, the #800A, is described as being made of koa, milo, and ohia. The model #800A has the same style fretboard as ours. We noticed that our ukulele is made of at least three different woods. The body is koa. I believe that the fretboard may be ohia, and the neck (or part of it anyway) may be milo. That said, I'm no Hawaiian hardwood expert. I'm hoping someone on the message board may have more familiarity with Hawaiian woods and can set us straight.
Incidentally, the ukulele had its original strings, according to the owner. They were pretty much shot, and I replaced them initially with Aquila New Nylgut strings. After a few weeks I tried Martin M600s, which both of us prefer over the Aquilas. I'm waiting to try a set of strings from Kamaka that should be arriving any day.
Mike
http://jeromeclockcollector.com/
Incidentally, the ukulele had its original strings, according to the owner. They were pretty much shot, and I replaced them initially with Aquila New Nylgut strings. After a few weeks I tried Martin M600s, which both of us prefer over the Aquilas. I'm waiting to try a set of strings from Kamaka that should be arriving any day.
Mike
http://jeromeclockcollector.com/