Help with Uke Identification Please

TwoTrax

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Can any of you gracious folks help me identify a ukulele that was just purchased? No identifying marks can be found. I'd also like to ask if anyone knows if the wood it is made of is Koa? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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It sure looks like koa to me. And very nicely figured koa, at that.
 
Yes, that looks like some very nicely figured Koa wood.
 
That is some sweet looking Koa, very very nice!!
 
No idea who made it from the pics, but I am thinking maple
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Nah, it's old, and I'd be willing to wager that it's koa. I've seen maple with similar flame, but not on old ukes. On NEW ukes, maybe. But not on old ones.
 
Better pictures would help. I'd like to see the back of the headstock, among other things.
 
Here are the Photos that I promised. Any help in identifying it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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Check out Ebay item#330534258762. The body shape is similar and so is the KOA but the headstock is all wrong. It might help you date it though.
 
You might want to go over to fleamarketmusic.com and post a question to Chuck Fayne under the Collector's uke yak link.

It's a nice looking uke. Obviously Hawaiian, koa (the first pics were so yellow the back did look like maple). Beyond that...I sure don't know. Doesn't quite look like Kumalae, or Sam Chang, or Kamaka or either Nunes, or Tabu or...

Chuck might have some ideas.
 
I'd say it's Hawaiian, and pretty early ('20s or so).... the way the neck heel is capped by the back is a common feature on Hawaiian ukes, from what I have read, although it's not UNHEARD of on mainland-made ukes. It's definitely koa. I'm wondering if the bridge is a replacement... it doesn't seem quite right somehow. It is pretty similar to the Mossman mentioned above, but the bridge saddle looks different. It has the same sort of "Batman" headstock. It might be one of those unknowable things...
 
Didn't Regal make some in this style on the Mainland?

+1 on asking Chuck.
 
Didn't Regal make some in this style on the Mainland?

+1 on asking Chuck.

I think so. I have a '20s "Mouna Loa" koa uke with the same type of back. Chuck was positive it was Hawaiian, because he said NO Mainland makers used that style. But the guy at The Ukulele Hall of Fame said that Regal and Harmony both made similar ukes in the teens and twenties. The label inside mine sure gives the impression of being a Mainland company, NOT a Hawaiian company (in a kind of hard-to-explain, intangible way). This one looks more "Hawaiian" than mine (which is only very superficially similar).
 
I'd say it's Hawaiian, and pretty early ('20s or so).... the way the neck heel is capped by the back is a common feature on Hawaiian ukes, from what I have read, although it's not UNHEARD of on mainland-made ukes. It's definitely koa. I'm wondering if the bridge is a replacement... it doesn't seem quite right somehow. It is pretty similar to the Mossman mentioned above, but the bridge saddle looks different. It has the same sort of "Batman" headstock. It might be one of those unknowable things...

I believe the bridge was replaced at some point.
 
Thanks for all of your answers. I have asked Chuck at the Fleamarketmusic.com and looked at the links. Thanks again for all of the help. If anyone else has any ideas feel free to add your suggestions.
 
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