Please Post Photos and Stories of Your Rare or Unusual Ukuleles

[Django]

I thought that it would be interesting to share photos of custom, limited, customized, rare or unique ukuleles, or anything unusual.

My taste in instruments leans toward traditional, so with the exception of a few deviations, my ukuleles are not really unusual. Please show off your special ukulele.

 

[RichM]

I got this 1930's Regal two-point from Jake at Antebellum Instruments. Big, deep voice that sounds great for fingerstyle stuff. Unique uke!

 

[Django]

That's a very cool uke. Jake is a great guy and fine musician. If any one is planning a trip updates to Vermont, you may want to stop in and meet Jake. He is friendly, knowledgeable and works out of his Antique Shop in the Vermont Outback. Thanks for sharing.

 

[KohanMike]

Very nice. I have a similar mandolele that I had made a couple of years ago by Bruce Wei in Vietnam ($355). I first saw the design on his eBay store, solid spruce and maple and decided to have it done in solid acacia koa and glossy black. I added the extra pearl fret markers and tailpiece. It has a full and rich sound.

Just a few weeks ago I saw another one of his designs on eBay and was so intrigued by it that I asked him to make me one with a Florentine cutaway and spalted top. He said had some nice solid spalted mango and suggested solid curly mango for the body, and I asked for spalted mango binding, solid ebony fretboard and bridge ($380). There is no top sound hole, but small sound holes all the way around the bouts, plus a larger one in the cutaway, which was an accident of miscommunication between me in Los Angeles and him in Vietnam, and his English as a third language, but it sounds really good, especially since I added fluorocarbon strings, so no problem. (He even threw in a hard case for all the business and recommendations I give him.)

 

[Croaky Keith]

Posting this as I haven't seen or heard anyone else who has one.

Baton Rouge solid spruce thinline round back cutaway concert with a MiSi pickup

 

[Cornfield]

Juel Ulven built this ukulele for a puppeteer to play with one hand while she operates her puppets.

 

[Debussychopin]

That above is ingenious. Too bad we don't have too many puppeteers in the demographic to allow for competitive technological advances in one-handed play uke contraptions.
I like that though.


I don't have anything unusual in particular and with no peculiar story other than I liked the loprinzi bc it is the only one I could find that is 14 fret/19 total for a standard scale soprano.
The story is, I looked on the Internet, found it , and bought it with my credit card and they delivered.

 

[Django]

I don't have anything unusual in particular and with no peculiar story other than I liked the loprinzi bc it is the only one I could find that is 14 fret/19 total for a standard scale soprano.
The story is, I looked on the Internet, found it , and bought it with my credit card and they delivered.

No hard and fast rules. We are ukulele players, so we are already a little special.:uhoh: Anything less normal than high volume off the shelf would meet the intent. There are a lot of instruments out there that go unnoticed or that are some how special.

 

[Django]

I didn't want to add my own to this thread, but I wanted to bring the thread back to life, so here is one of only two Laughlin 1920 3K replicas. Tim borrowed a collector's 1920 style 3 ukulele and went to great pains to replicate every detail including bow tie, 9th fret markers rather than 10th, kite and white-black-white nut. Tim even machined his own copies of 1920 Grover tuners, (Waverlys were not available yet). The finish is old school and the Koa shimmers light to dark and back again. The tone is complex and a bit percussive. It is a very expressive ukulele and a fine work of art.

 

[vinceherman]

Here is Jake Wildwood's article on my 1920's Oscar Schmidt Taropatch. My grandfather and my father played it and I was the only one to show interest so it came to me. It was in SAAAAAAD shape. I almost gave up on it and made it a wall hanging. But I was enjoying playing my other ukes so I had some attention given to its many woes, first by a local luthier and then by Jake.

 

[Griffis]

Here is Jake Wildwood's article on my 1920's Oscar Schmidt Taropatch. My grandfather and my father played it and I was the only one to show interest so it came to me. It was in SAAAAAAD shape. I almost gave up on it and made it a wall hanging. But I was enjoying playing my other ukes so I had some attention given to its many woes, first by a local luthier and then by Jake.
View attachment 97639

Vince, I love everything about that story AND the instrument. Gorgeous! That is a dream uke to me.

 

[Ukulelerick9255]

Django I thought you like this because it's designed from the old Django Reinhardt Selmer Macafferi guitar. It's a tenor scale with a baritone body and instead of the usual cutaway I had a scoop built instead. It's a custom build by Beau Hannam and the picture of it is his wife Laurie holding it after completion. Ziricote b&s, figures redwood top, beeshive Nara neck with Madagascar rosewood fretboard, the bridge is Brazilian rosewood and the scoop and back of the headstock are walnut burl. The body is bound in curly koa. The purfling is black and red on both sides of a channel of black mop. The custom inlay on the headstock is an African grey parrot done in mop with a single red feather on the neck done by Jimmi Wingert. The fret board and headstock are bound as well and the headstock is African Blackwood. The tuners are Rubner snake wood tuners. I have it strung in a wound low g with a wound C and black nylon for the E and A.

 

[spongeuke]

This take on the double neck ukulele was inspired by the Mando-uke of the 1930s. I have used a two necks rather than one and off set them to give your left thumb more room between. The color help the player know if they are playing the Baritone or the Bass. I have since redesigned the necks and I'm building them now.
View attachment 97671View attachment 97672View attachment 97673View attachment 97674

 

[Pete F]

I love Vince's story too - and the uke!

 

[SoloRule]

I got this 1930's Regal two-point from Jake at Antebellum Instruments. Big, deep voice that sounds great for fingerstyle stuff. Unique uke!

I am very curious about this uke.
Is it heavy in weight?

 

[Cornfield]

A Mya-Moe Lap Steel ukulele. Steel strings, square neck, it is played with a slide bar.

 

[KohanMike]

Django I thought you like this because it's designed from the old Django Reinhardt Selmer Macafferi guitar.

I actually neglected to show my Selmer/Macafferi Django Grande Bouche gypsy jazz I had made by Bruce Wei in Vietnam. For $780 shipped it's all solid; curly maple top, Indian rosewood body and headplate, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, bridge and tailpiece, and I added a preamp/tuner and pickup after I took these photos.

 

[PeteyHoudini]

I bought a Sitar-kulele many years back at Mid East Music. They don't sell them anymore.



Petey

 

[SoloRule]

I actually neglected to show my Selmer/Macafferi Django Grande Bouche gypsy jazz I had made by Bruce Wei in Vietnam. For $780 shipped it's all solid; curly maple top, Indian rosewood body and headplate, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, bridge and tailpiece, and I added a preamp/tuner and pickup after I took these photos.


Any chance of providing a sound sample?
I heard about Bruce Wei uke. Lots of praise on his design but never heard any sound sample.
Thanks

 

[Cornfield]

I bought a Sitar-kulele many years back at Mid East Music. They don't sell them anymore.

View attachment 97684

Petey

That looks cool. Soprano size? How does it sound? How do you like it?