nicely restored Kamaka

A very nice one indeed.
 
Thank you for the nice words guys, that is my Kamaka for sale. Here are the before pictures of one I restored last week for Dixie Ukuleles in Florida. It was on life support when I got it.DSCN2016.jpgDSCN2014.jpgDSCN2015.jpg
 
His ebay id says Stafford Virginia, which is about half way between Fredericksburg and Quantico off I-95
 
@twetterhahn - very nice repairs! That thing was beyond on life support...looks like they'd pulled the plug and sent it to the morgue... :)

What kind of glue was that slopped all over it and how did you get it off?

John
 
There was some glue and red putty smeared all over the cracks. It was very strange that there were these grooves on both sides of the bridge. I suspect that a palm sander was used to removed glue from were the bridge had popped off and the sander dug into the top on both sides. They re-glued the bridge back on with alot of squeeze out and did not mask it or even wipe off the excess glue. I used a small rectangular piece of metal to scrape out the glue and putty. I glued in some cleats on the inside to stablize the cracks and then added thin slivers of koa to the large gaps in the top. Then levelled everthing smooth and sprayed with satin nitrocellulose lacquer.

Yes, I do live in Stafford Va.
 
Thanks...you certainly do beautiful work and you've got far, far, more patience than I (not to mention skill). :)

John
 
It was the first restoration that I did for this guy and it was the worst one he had, so it was a test of my skills I guess. After he received it he sent two more turds to fix and they are Martins. The martins are much more difficult to work on since they are stained. I don't think I want to do any more Martins. I just bought two more Kamakas for restoration. One is a soprano with the sail headstock and purfling around the body. Looks like it had a Tiki on the headstock at one point. Those were used only on the concert models from my experience. That one may be a rare custom white label. Does anyone have any info on that?
 
Never seen a sail head soprano before. I think Kamaka did a fair amount of custom ukes even back then. I'd never seen a Nunes style concert size Kamaka with rope binding until a few months ago either.

Maybe Stan will chime in
 
Skinny Money McGee said:
Never seen a sail head soprano before. I think Kamaka did a fair amount of custom ukes even back then. I'd never seen a Nunes style concert size Kamaka with rope binding until a few months ago either.

Maybe Stan will chime in
Click to expand...
Aloha Bruce,
Very nice kamaka, but I don't think it looks like a sail head but I guess it is priced about right for current times...I bought my gold label when the prices were much better and paid 175 for it....I do have sail head gold label tenor I treasure most though.. this looks like a late 50's kamaka soprano..
 
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Here is a picture of it. I have only been into the ukulele since last November but have bought ten since then. Taught myself how to play and taught my son to play and he entered his talent show at school. I play guitar so it was an easy transition. View attachment 64723
 

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