Metal uke?

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters

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When I first started looking for a ukulele, I ran across a metal ukulele at a local music store. If memory serves, it was a soprano. It was gun metal gray; it was fun to play (I visited it a few times); it sounded great; it was old; it was too expensive for me to consider for my first uke.

Does anyone have any experience with old, metal ukes? Any ideas what this pretty metal uke could've been?
 
There's a guy here making them custom metal ukuleles for alot of money..I'm not sure it is justified to spend that kind of money on one...ha ha real real expensive...
 
Sounds like some home spun folk art there- all the metal ones I am aware of historically have been resonators. To bad you didn't get some photos- be cool to see for those of us inclined to hit the man cave (or woman cave) and make stuff happen.
May have been a new Aluma-Uke. Never seen one in person, but it looks awfully cool.
 
Could be a new uke. I seem to recall that Republic makes a "pre-aged" version of their resonator uke. Others may also. Might be concert scale though - not sure if they make a soprano (but I believe National does...).
 
Does anyone have any experience with old, metal ukes? Any ideas what this pretty metal uke could've been?

Only that I used to know a uke collector who had a gray metal uke like that. If I ever got a chance to play it, I don't remember it now. His was old, dating back to the '20s or thereabouts.
 
Have seen pictures of a few non-resontor metal ukes. Memory not good enough to remember who made them though.

Here's the Aluma-Uke, It's matte gray. Here's website

http://www.alum-a-uke.com/
 
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Only that I used to know a uke collector who had a gray metal uke like that. If I ever got a chance to play it, I don't remember it now. His was old, dating back to the '20s or thereabouts.

Aha! That sounds like what I'm talking about. Not a resonator, but a 20s-style metal ukulele. Gray. I wish I'd known back then that I'd be completely smitten with ukuleles a few years later. I could've written down the info.
 
I think I assumed that they were for Army marching bands a century ago, based on the battleship gray, a standard color for U.S. government items.

I worked for a U.S. agency back in the 1980s and we had to order tools for field work from a GSA (General Services Administration) catalog. The catalog had all kinds of stuff in it, including all the instruments used by military bands. I'm pretty sure there was a ukulele in the catalog.
 
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