Nice Old Koa 'Ukulele

Here a nice old Koa Kumalae 'ukulele on eBay, at the moment pretty reasonable. I've had mine for 10+ years and sounds incredible.
From what I gather Sam Kamaka apprenticed under Jonah Kumalae.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320426956277&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

That looks like a very nice specimen. I've got one just like it, so will be interested to see what it goes for. I've decided I'm not into collectible ukes. I had an early Martin 'O', but sold it because I hardly ever took it out of its case. I never play my Kumalae for fear of it getting 'dinged' - or worse.

Ukantor (John Colter).

My friend had one of those. Realllllly old uke: his mother's from elementary school. And we played it a lot without really worrying about it. The poor uke was on its way out with a crack in the top and a sagging soundboard. So we pretty much just kept playing it. Definitely had that vintage sound to it, since ukes are built to be enjoyed. It didn't sound too good to me personally, but that could have been from the ancient strings. It was a cool piece though.

I also saw a guy with a whole Macy's bag full of these old Kumalae ukes at Dan's Guitar here, No cases, just straight up soprano ukes in a shopping bag. I guess trying to sell them, but they weren't interested in fair-condition vintage ukes. In retrospect, I should have asked what price he was looking for...might have gotten a deal. Oh well....

ukantor said:

That looks like a very nice specimen. I've got one just like it, so will be interested to see what it goes for. I've decided I'm not into collectible ukes. I had an early Martin 'O', but sold it because I hardly ever took it out of its case. I never play my Kumalae for fear of it getting 'dinged' - or worse.

Ukantor (John Colter).

Click to expand...

I definitely play my old Kumalae uke regularly. I played it recently at a paying gig because the date happened to be the 130th anniversary of the arrival of the Ravenscrag, the ship that brought the Portuguese to Hawaii who eventually tranformed their instrument into the uke we love so much... I pretty much play it at least once daily because I love the sound.