Vintage (Pre-1980) Bruko No. 6 - $120 Shipped CONUSA

Hi All,

I have a pre-1980 Bruko No. 6, that I am putting up for sale. This isn't my first post, but I am pretty new here and my only other posts were about trouble shooting this uke. I was in the past, however, pretty active on a woodworking forum and have a good reputation their as both a poster and occasional seller of tools I was letting go of. That forum deletes most of its classifieds once things are sold, but if want a little reassurance about me before buying there are still a couple of mine up. I'll direct you too them via PM if you want to see them. I have only ever sold two things on Ebay, and only one of the buyers left a review, but again if you want to reference me, just ask and I'll direct you to them via PM.

Okay, now lets get to the uke. I bought this on Ebay a little over a month ago. I was hoping it would be good to go as is but it had some saddle buzz and turned into a bit of a project. Basically, with the help of folks here I determined that the action was too low and that the saddle needed to be raised back up to increase the break angle behind it and provide enough downward pressure. To keep a long story short I ended up planing down the saddle section of the one piece saddle/bridge, and gluing in a new saddle. The new saddle is compensated and made from Ebony. You can see the details of what I did as well as a couple post-fix playing samples in this thread.

So anyway, while I was figuring out how to get this uke up and running I ended up buying a Kiwaya KS-5 on the forum that I have fallen in love with. I actually like this Bruko quite a bit now that the buzz is fixed, but the Kiwaya is just generally nicer to play and hear and I can't see this getting much play time now so I decided to see if anyone here was interested.

Additional Details:

Scale length is ~ 13".

Action at 12th is about ~ 8/64ths". I set it here because it looked like this is about where it would have been originally. I would not recommend trying to lower it, as it needs to be about this high to have enough of a break angle behind the saddle.

Nut width is about 1 3/8"

Tuners are old friction tuners but they work fine.

The Bruko stamp inside is faded off but I emailed pictures to Bruko and this was the response:

"Hello,
you bought an old No. 6 model which was built before 1980.
Body is made of Mahogany with an Maple neck. (Rosewood dots on the fingerboard)
We hope you enjoy the instrument.

Best regards
H. Pfeiffer"

You can feel the fret ends a little from the neck shrinking. That said, I've been keeping it in a room of my house that isn't air conditioned and they've gotten much better since I got it. If you keep this humidified they shouldn't create any issue for you.

The intonation on it is okay but not perfect even with the compensated saddle. A more apt description would be to say that the intonation is sensitive. Sometimes when check it it is spot on, but often times it is a couple bars sharp on the Snark. Its also pretty sensitive to finger pressure. It has never sounded out of tune to me, and frankly if I hadn't been messing with the saddle wouldn't have noticed anything was off, but its not ever going to look 100% perfect if you check it with a tuner.

It's got some dings and scratches, and a little discoloration around the bridge where it looks like some glue was scraped off. The seller I bought it from said the bridge had been professionally reglued so I guess that's why.

I don't want to under-rate this uke. Its a really cool old solid mahogany and curly maple instrument. It's got some of the Bruko plunk, but to me it sounds a bit quieter and mellower than the recordings I've heard of the new ones. To me it plays fine and sounds nice. It is super light. It feels even lighter than my Kiwaya, and the neck is quite slim. It is what it is and while it is never going to be super tuned perfectly intonated instrument its a fun old uke that begs to played.

It is currently strung with a very new set of Martin flourocarbons and will include a set of strings from a pack of clear worth strongs that I put on briefly and took off in favor of the Martins

Between the $110 I have in it, the several hours of my time, and the cost of shipping, I'm asking $120 shipped CONUSA. It will come in an Edy Finn hippy gig bag or for an extra $25, I'll include the nearly brand new Uke Crazy foam case I bought just 4 weeks ago specifically for this uke.

So that's $120 for uke and Edy Finn gig bag shipped CONUSA
OR $145 shipped CONUSA for uke and hard foam case.

Paypal Only.

Thanks!

Chris

I tried to attach more pics but got a quota error. If you click the link to the thread in my initial post you can see a couple close-ups of the new saddle.

Nice uke! I had one of these pre-1980 Brukos a while back, as well as modern Brukos, and mine also sounded a bit sweeter, and less brash, than the new ones. I also loved the maple neck; good luck with the saler.

Ukecaster said:

Nice uke! I had one of these pre-1980 Brukos a while back, as well as modern Brukos, and mine also sounded a bit sweeter, and less brash, than the new ones. I also loved the maple neck; good luck with the saler.

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Thanks. I read a through an old thread about the vintage ones before I bid on it. It might have been your thread.

Price Drop

I've concluded that I'm just probably going to need to take a bigger loss on this than I was hoping.

Price is now $95 shipped CONUSA for the uke with the Edy Finn gigbag.

OR $120 shipped CONUSA if you want the Uke Crazy foam case with the uke.

Thanks.

Final price drop

Final price drop.

$80 shipped CONUSA. I had honestly planned to keep it rather than than drop the price this far, but I just don't have the space for extra instruments...even little sopranos. This is the final drop though.

Side note: I've been keeping it humidified, but I have noticed the the fret ends have gotten a little more exposed, with the season change. I don't like there to be any surprises for the buyer when I sell things, so I just wanted to make sure I pointed that out.

Decided to keep the Uke crazy foam case, so this will come with the Edy Fin gig bag.

CPG said:

Final price drop.

$80 shipped CONUSA. I had honestly planned to keep it rather than than drop the price this far, but I just don't have the space for extra instruments...even little sopranos. This is the final drop though.

Side note: I've been keeping it humidified, but I have noticed the the fret ends have gotten a little more exposed, with the season change. I don't like there to be any surprises for the buyer when I sell things, so I just wanted to make sure I pointed that out.

Decided to keep the Uke crazy foam case, so this will come with the Edy Fin gig bag.

Click to expand...

Here in the U.K. that would be a very attractive price for that Uke, I’m a bit puzzled as to why it hasn’t sold in the USA but sometimes that’s the way of things. Sometimes Buyers are like Busses, none arrive at the time expected and later three arrive together. Maybe the Bruko brand just isn’t familiar enough to US buyers for them to have enough confidence to buy a vintage one, even at the reasonable price you offer. My guess is that UU is both a relatively small and a very selective market, perhaps a listing on a famous internet auction site might serve you better. Good luck with the sale.

Graham Greenbag said:

Here in the U.K. that would be a very attractive price for that Uke, I’m a bit puzzled as to why it hasn’t sold in the USA but sometimes that’s the way of things. Sometimes Buyers are like Busses, none arrive at the time expected and later three arrive together. Maybe the Bruko brand just isn’t familiar enough to US buyers for them to have enough confidence to buy a vintage one, even at the reasonable price you offer. My guess is that UU is both a relatively small and a very selective market, perhaps a listing on a famous internet auction site might serve you better. Good luck with the sale.

Click to expand...

Thanks Graham. Yeah, I think its a good price. I figured my final here is low enough that if someone wants to take it to a luthier to get the fret ends filed they will still have a nice sounding really cool mahogany uke at a good price. I'm pretty new here which may be why its not selling. Also, as noted it's had some repair work done (reglued bridge and rebuilt saddle) which may scare folks off. Also, sometimes things just don't sell. There's a Martin Style 2 up right now at a price that I can't believe hasn't sold. Sometimes not lot of people are looking to buy. Anyway, yeah, if it doesn't sell I'll may just stick it on the auction site.

This is a great deal for someone - I wish it were me.

Heck - I will go for it - PM sent

Sold!

Thanks Ian!