1930s Maxitone Banjo Ukulele Restore project

chaztoo

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Well, I got her. I posted about this little gem in the Reviews rooms, but now that she's mine, I'm posting this restoration project here and will be begging your advice along the way. Anyone with Banjo Ukulele experience feel free to butt in with all your opinions, because I have zero and need some.

This is a 1930s Maxitone Banjo Ukulele. It needs some cleaning and tightening and some new parts, but even to my untrained eye it looks to be totally savable. Here's a video with some close up shots of it and a better description.

My first real point of being stuck is getting the rust off the drum without removing the head, which looks to be original. Thanks for any help or encouragement.

 
That's a great find! Have fun with the restore. I would really try to save the bridge and reuse it as the bridge. Anyway, Congrats!

Yeah, Dave, I will definitely be trying to save that little piece for use some way or another.
 
I was just checking out another maxitone restore where they used a new grover bridge. Here is the link.

HA! Great timing. I just finished emailing that guy, Jake, with some questions about it. I found a bridge on Ukulele World that claims to be period-true to these old banjo ukes, and it's pretty inexpensive. I think the most money I'll spend on any one piece will be $20 for new tuners, which I plan to buy from Mike at Mainland.

As a side note, do check out Jake's work on YouTube and his free albums on his own site. If you like traditional American roots music, you will like his work.
 
I'm doing a restoration on my second banjo uke. From doing lots of research I've read that when the ends of the frets stick out it means the wood is too dry and has shrunk. Humidifying might help with that. I would take the body apart, it's real easy. The head can stay on or should lift right off and go back on with no problem.I Just took mine apart and put a lot of elbow grease
into polishing all the metal parts with Simichrome chrome polish.It is amzing how well Simichrome works. If it needs a new head it is really an easy thing to replace. Do a search and you'll find a few places that will show you how to do it. Replacing the head is much easier than you think.
 
My father and I rebuilt a 1955 chevy, and the hardest/time consuming piece of the restoration was the chrome. I bet we spent hundreds of combined hours just steel wooling the chrome to get the pits, rust and everything else out. It took work, but man did it look nice once we had it done...

nothing like a little evening polishing...

looks like fun!
 
It's cleaning up nicely. I have some vintage tuners headed my way, and now all I need is a bridge, a nut and some strings. Get excited!

Here are a few before and Afters:

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Hey chaztoo,
Great luck on your find and good luck on the restoration. The metal back piece is terrific. I just did a clean up on the same uke without the back piece and I'm listing it for sale on Artfire. http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=1083919
This little uke can be intimidating. The body is nckel and shines up good as you know. I don't think your bridge is original because of the deep cuts for the strings. A grover bridge as mentioned before is probably better and similar to what I have on mine. Adjusting the action here would be the trick, and did it originally use steel or nylon strings?
I think your loose neck can be cleaned up with shims and a new screw at the end of the body. The new tuners are a must but save the originals as a spare original may show up some day, or send them to me. I will gladly accept them in trade for my advice :)
If you're going to go to all the trouble of a complete restoration, why not replace the head? I did it with mine and I'm very pleased.Go to Stewart- McDonald, buy a standard skin banjo head and replace. These things don't last forever and doing the job is great experience. It's not that hard. It comes with great instructions. BluesBoyRoy
 
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Well, everyone, it's finished! Thanks so much for the advice and encouragement. I'm no luthier, but I'm proud of this little thing. The nut was made from the mystery pice that was in the bridge position when I found it, and I found some vintage tuners on ebay, so the only modern pieces are the bridge and strings. It was so loud I couldn't hear myself sing, so I had to put a sock around the through rod and one on either side to get it just right. Here's a video telling the story and debuting it's first little ditty.

Charlie

 
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