Just had a Dias or Santo come through our store :D

PedalFreak

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Just had a lady bring in a very old ukulele, from looking at photos of other ukes it looks to be a Dias or Santo soprano Style3 or 4. Beautiful Koa! Rope binding, rope center stripe on fretboard. Koa neck/fretboard, koa friction pegs.

The bad: All of the rope binding on the back was gone. Bridge needs to be reset, at some point it came off and someone reglued it (not bad, but could be better). Couple of the friction pegs are busted pretty good.

The worst part: The lady is a kindergarten teacher, she says she "bangs" on it everyday, and lets the kids play with it :wallbash:

I restrung it, took some photos (I'll post them once I can get them on my computer), and played it a bit. A lot of sound out of such a little instrument! Extremely light.

And for those of you wondering, YES I offered her cash plus a new ukulele of her choice off of our wall of ukuleles, she had 30 to choose from. She is going to talk to her husband and get back to me.

She got it years ago from a 90 year old man she knew. It was really cool. If she does sell it to me, I'll probably contact DaSilva and see if he can restore it for me :)
 
The worst part: The lady is a kindergarten teacher, she says she "bangs" on it everyday, and lets the kids play with it :wallbash:

I think it is good she is encouraging young kids to pick up a musical instrument and play with it.
 
In kindergarten, the children aren't really learning anything with the instrument. They're more than likely just attacking it lol.
 
In kindergarten, the children aren't really learning anything with the instrument. They're more than likely just attacking it lol.

Maybe....

However, Kamaka donates their ukes to school programs all the time - that is how Jake got started at age 4.
 
Can't wait to see the photos!!! If it is a Dias or a Santo, those are pretty rare....especially Dias! Did you see a label?
 
When I met Mike DaSilva, he let me play a Martin from the 1920s. I was skeptical for about 3 seconds, but there is really something magical in those old ukuleles. And he let me examine a Santos replica he was working on. Light as a feather. Even my custom is really heavy compared to his ukuleles.
 
There was no label in it.

There are some things that attribute a uke to each of those builders. I have been into this for the last year since I came across a very early uke which has no label. (the uke in my avatar). I am looking forward to seeing the photos.
 
Just found out what it is. Not a Santos or Dias :( It's a La Melodia, still sounds great. Sounds like they were from the late teens and early 20's.

Here is one the Elderly sold:
180U-412_front.jpg
 
Yes, that one from Elderly looks Chicago made. Still, a very cool old uke.
 
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