c.1925 Washburn 5315 Soprano Uke

I haven't posted uke pics here lately because I've been tied up with so many mandolin and guitar repairs!

Fortunately, here's a cute little beat-up old Washburn that I finished overhauling yesterday. This one had been really messed with by a previous owner but after removing that influence it's turned out to be a fantastic player with that typically focused, loud, and sweet Lyon & Healy uke tone.

Note that the modified bridge style ("pass through, pull out the hole, and knot" style) is due to the bridge having been cut up in all sorts of weird ways to lower the action in the past.

More pics/writeup at my blog (click here).

Hello Jake,
Nice photos and nice restoration. Thank you for reminding me about another old project that is lying on the bottom shelf in the shop. It is an old Stella parlour guitar out of Chicago in the 50's. It is solid birch and the scale is 19 1/2 inches. It will get a new nut and become a low G baritone. Who knows it might even sound OK. Thanks again Jake for the reminder.
Regards
1931jim

Super cool Jake, thanks for posting! I enjoy your site a lot and wonder if you will ever do some "before" photos since you really do amazing work?

Poor Washburn Uke! I hope it enjoys its second chance at life with a new owner.

Lovely uke, Jake. And great post, as usual.

Thanks folks -- and to answer a Q -- once in a blue moon I do before photos. I think the reality is that I'm pretty lazy about doing "before" photos because I generally start work on instruments as soon as they're out of the shipping box they came to me in. I'm impatient like that when I have a "patient" to get to.

Suffice to say, this one was a pretty ugly patient. Now it's a respectable old devil.

The old Washburns are very good ukuleles. Jake describes the tone quite accurately. I was just playing mine moments before I read the post.