I have a few beautiful, exotic ukes, but I do have a soft spot for my first tenor.
I was visiting a guy who had just stated distributing ukes.... He got them made in a factory in China with his brand name on them. I checked out a few, then noticed a tenor cut-away. He said the factory had thrown 2 in with his order and he had used one for teaching. It had a "Lapore" label inside that was crookedly glued over a "Kala" label, and he had scratched off the "Lapore" headstock label leaving an ugly gash. But it played nicely, and I decided I needed to own a tenor to see what it was like, so I made him an offer.... I loved it!! Took it everywhere - because I
could - after all it was a cheapie, and I was already scouring the net for my "good" tenor.
I got the good tenor, but it stayed in the cupboard and I played the "cheapie" more often because I wasn't so precious about it.
I was camping with some friends, we had sung around the fire at night, the uke was laying on the ground... I thought "I'd better put it in the car so no one steps on it". On the way I tripped on a tent rope and went down on the uke, breaking the neck clear off. I threw the bits in the car and tried to keep up a brave face, but I was clearly devastated. I was already planning to have a ritual burning of the pieces sometime in a private ceremony.
As soon as I got home I found a replacement beater on the net, but it took a while to arrive in Australia, so I had a go at repairing the first one. I got the neck back on but the fretboard didn't align - it kicked up a level from the 12th fret up. I filed the life out of those frets so that the strings where clear for frets 1 to 12. It wasn't pretty - but it worked. While I was at it I made a compensated saddle and put on Gotoh tuners. Then I made a new label to stick over the previous ones - "Duke Ukuleles" - it's No 1 of a limited run of 1.
It still plays like a dream, and it's the one I am most used to so it always feel like coming home.
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