Tonk American pair of ukes, photos, fun
- Thread starter coolkayaker1
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coolkayaker1
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coolkayaker1
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This one is for those on UU that love vintage ukes (you know who you are). I recently got not one but two Tonk American ukuleles, I think they are late-1920s-early 1930s (but I'm open to ideas). The cool thing about them is that they are so different. They clearly are from that transition period, that whole Lyon & Healy, Regal, JR Stewart, Tonk American 1920-something mish-mash that I can never keep straight.
One looks cedar-ish (browner topwood) and the other more spruce-ish, but I'm thinking both are spruce with birchwood back and sides. The differences I'll describe, referring to them as such.
Cedar-ish one: fancy fretboard end; black-white binding; smaller black Bakelite tuners; larger and higher saddle with a brass nut (?); 13 inch scale, yet slightly wider body; no butt strip.
Spruce-ish one: flat fretboard end; white binding; larger white Bakelite tuners; smaller and lower saddle with bone nut; 14 inch scale, yet slightly narrower body; with butt strip.
They clearly have difference bracing patterns inside, too!! Funny how the wide body has the shorter scale (they are both the same thickness). Neither has an inside label (fortunately, both have well-preserved head labels, which look pretty cool).
Here's a cool 1930 Pdf with many listings, including Lyon&Healy, which was owned by Tonk by then. (Tonk on page 12, many other classic ukes here):
http://www.acousticmusic.org/userfi...al Distributors/Tonk Bros 1930 Catalog 47.pdf
Here's Lardy's Tonk: https://sites.google.com/site/ukulelecorner/home/in-the-corner/soprano-or-standard/tonk-american
Here's Lardy's Tonk Bros. listing with history: https://sites.google.com/site/ukulelemakers/uvw-xyz/tonk-bros
On mine, both have small cracks here and there, and both need to be cleaned up (I cleaned up the spruce-ish one, but not at all the cedar-ish one).
If anyone has some ideas about what company may have made each, please let me know. It would be of interest to me, and thanks in advance.
I wanted to post them here as it's not common to see two, side-by-side (as few are stupid enough to buy two...lol). Thanks for any ideas you have.
One looks cedar-ish (browner topwood) and the other more spruce-ish, but I'm thinking both are spruce with birchwood back and sides. The differences I'll describe, referring to them as such.
Cedar-ish one: fancy fretboard end; black-white binding; smaller black Bakelite tuners; larger and higher saddle with a brass nut (?); 13 inch scale, yet slightly wider body; no butt strip.
Spruce-ish one: flat fretboard end; white binding; larger white Bakelite tuners; smaller and lower saddle with bone nut; 14 inch scale, yet slightly narrower body; with butt strip.
They clearly have difference bracing patterns inside, too!! Funny how the wide body has the shorter scale (they are both the same thickness). Neither has an inside label (fortunately, both have well-preserved head labels, which look pretty cool).
Here's a cool 1930 Pdf with many listings, including Lyon&Healy, which was owned by Tonk by then. (Tonk on page 12, many other classic ukes here):
http://www.acousticmusic.org/userfi...al Distributors/Tonk Bros 1930 Catalog 47.pdf
Here's Lardy's Tonk: https://sites.google.com/site/ukulelecorner/home/in-the-corner/soprano-or-standard/tonk-american
Here's Lardy's Tonk Bros. listing with history: https://sites.google.com/site/ukulelemakers/uvw-xyz/tonk-bros
On mine, both have small cracks here and there, and both need to be cleaned up (I cleaned up the spruce-ish one, but not at all the cedar-ish one).
If anyone has some ideas about what company may have made each, please let me know. It would be of interest to me, and thanks in advance.
I wanted to post them here as it's not common to see two, side-by-side (as few are stupid enough to buy two...lol). Thanks for any ideas you have.
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David Newton
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Great pair kayaker, thanks for offering them up here.
These come from a time, I think, when all the Chicago instrument companies traded out parts back and forth, depending on what they were making at the time. Sure you can figure out who was claiming to have built them, but how many other companies contributed parts & services to the production?
I wonder if one of the brands could have operated as an "assembler" only, buying parts made to spec, and assembling & gluing, finishing & shipping out completed orders.
These come from a time, I think, when all the Chicago instrument companies traded out parts back and forth, depending on what they were making at the time. Sure you can figure out who was claiming to have built them, but how many other companies contributed parts & services to the production?
I wonder if one of the brands could have operated as an "assembler" only, buying parts made to spec, and assembling & gluing, finishing & shipping out completed orders.
Eyeguy
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Very very cool! Here is some information you may enjoy looking through:
http://www.acousticmusic.org/userfi...al Distributors/Tonk Bros 1930 Catalog 47.pdf
http://www.acousticmusic.org/userfi...al Distributors/Tonk Bros 1930 Catalog 47.pdf
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coolkayaker1
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Thanks, Pond. I have studied it, and see one thing that may or may not be the reason for the Factory Second label: if you look at the photo of the fretboard ends, the Fact Sec one (the one on the left in my photo, the one with the finished, scalloped end) has an extension that has been glued on! It's not all one fretboard,, but one piece was on the neck, and then an extension was added (plus it has a tiny crack from aging, which I can fix). Other than that, no major findings, and it plays well.
Thanks for the input, David. I'll bet you are right-as-rain. I see your point about the Chicago "connection" (no relation to Al Capone) sharing parts and such. So, I have a couple of Frankensteins.
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coolkayaker1
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Eyeguy, thanks for the link!
Pukulele Pete
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Did You have to remove a pick gaurd on your second one ? I was bidding on that one too. Nice buy.
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coolkayaker1
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Yes, I did! I was sweating it, but it came off without top wood damage. Oh, Pete. I wish I had known. If I knew it was you I'd have withdrawn my bids. Oh, man.
Where do you live? Are you in the USA?
Pukulele Pete
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coolkayaker1
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Oh, okay, Pete. Hey, I'm from Mass., too. Born, raised, college, the works. Love Mass and New Hampshire. Heaven! The reason I asked: if you lived close to me, I'd get them both all cleaned up and you could come and play them with me and choose either you like and buy it for the exact eBay price I paid.
Great question, Howard. Well, they both sounded great for intonation, but two things hindered a great analysis: (1) these Bakelite (I think) tuners don't hold well, so I have to clean them up, add a brass washer, and they'll be fine, and (2) the strings on them when I got the ukes were like a thousand years old!
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stevepetergal
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Yes, that's quite a pair. Congratulations, Steve.
Teek
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What a couple of honeys and the one does look like cedar, is there any tell tale fragrance left?? YUM!
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coolkayaker1
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The funny thing is, there's no smell to either, Teek. Good question. It sure looks like cedar to the eye. Yet, it does not have the scratches and dings that I'd expect of cedar for being handled for 60 years, plus others have said that Tonk Bros. (in all its incarnations) used spruce. Sometimes, according to R. Turner on another thread, spruce can turn apple-brown with age; perhaps that's what occurred here.
Thanks, Stever!
river_driver
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My best guess is that they are both Regal builds - the headstock shape, and especially the routed edge on the headstock of the spruce-ish one suggests it.
Compare to these, from Jake Wildwood's blog:
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2012/03/c1930-regal-made-june-days-soprano.html
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2013/01/c1930-regal-made-mahogany-soprano.html
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2013/09/c1930-regal-made-army-green-banjo.html
Compare to these, from Jake Wildwood's blog:
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2012/03/c1930-regal-made-june-days-soprano.html
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2013/01/c1930-regal-made-mahogany-soprano.html
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2013/09/c1930-regal-made-army-green-banjo.html
jeff mercer
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Good to see that Tonk Bros. catalogue again, Coolkayaker..No 'Tonk Americans' in my collection, but I have two ukes that are advertised within;
Weissenborn 'style C' & a Harmony 'Vita-uke'..interestingly, both probably pre-date that particular catalogue. The W/Born has a 'Stadlmair' label (distributor 1923-26), & the Smeck 'Vita' has 'Patent Pending' stamped inside..the patent was granted in mid-'28 (from memory), so an early one. Nice finds there, mate !
Jeff.
Weissenborn 'style C' & a Harmony 'Vita-uke'..interestingly, both probably pre-date that particular catalogue. The W/Born has a 'Stadlmair' label (distributor 1923-26), & the Smeck 'Vita' has 'Patent Pending' stamped inside..the patent was granted in mid-'28 (from memory), so an early one. Nice finds there, mate !
Jeff.
river_driver
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I got Bob Carlin's book on Regal yesterday (http://www.amazon.com/Regal-Musical-Instruments-Bob-Carlin/dp/1574242733) which indicates that Regal only produced Tonk-branded ukes in 1930. Of course we all know how bad record keeping was for all the Chicago builders...
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coolkayaker1
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Jeff, you have some fine ukuleles, there. Although I know of the Vita ukulele--a fine piece, indeed--I have never heard of the W.born with Stadlmair label. Sometime you should take photos of that uncommon instrument. And old uncommon instrument, no less. Superb!
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