Weissenborn Ukulele

This turning into my new Holy Grail.
Anyone has one or heard on that can share a story.
Mahalo,
Michael

There are lap steel resonator ukes, Mya-Moe makes one. I don't know about hollow neck Weissenborn instruments though.

Luna makes a fairly nice Weissenborn lap steel w/hollow neck.

http://www.sears.com/luna-guitars-l...1666&cpncode=26-393623160-2&redirectType=SRDT

Never seen one in person but they did make Weissenborn "Hawaiian" soprano ukuleles like this one right here in Los Angeles. I'm not really into the vintage uke thing but have always kind of had a fantasy about running across one, since they're from the same place I'm from.

Yes. Paddy Burgin in NZ makes em. I've talked with him about them. He can make them with nylon or steel strings. He makes some of the nicest Weissenborn guitars out there. His Weissen-uke sounds sweet.



This one is strung up with nylon strings, I believe.

didgeridoo2 said:

Yes. Paddy Burgin in NZ makes em. I've talked with him about them. He can make them with nylon or steel strings. He makes some of the nicest Weissenborn guitars out there. His Weissen-uke sounds sweet.



This one is strung up with nylon strings, I believe.

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That sounds great!

wiessenborn Ukulele

My mistake I didn't make my post clear.I am refering to the ukuleles made by wiessenborn in L.A. in the 20's.Not the guitars ( which are beautiful).I am trying to get some insight to these older koa ukes.I have seen a few,but they are in such poor shape that I could not tell thier tone.We don't see many of these in the islands so I thought UU would be a good place to ask.
Aloha,
M

hilot.h. said:

This turning into my new Holy Grail.
Anyone has one or heard on that can share a story.

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Keep checking the market place on Flea Market Music. Every so often one shows up. Good luck.

Will Do.But I would kind of liked an opinion on tone.A well such is life.
IMUA

http://youtu.be/7I8lqDObvqs by MGM.

The most spectacular Weissenborns I've seen were on display at the Aloha Spirit exhibit of 'ukulele and Aloha shirts that just closed at the Casa Romantica in San Clemente. It's a matched pair of custom concerts made ca. 1920 for a player named Walter Brunner, still in the original case. They're from the Jim O'Mahoney collection. I've never seen anything like it.

Jim T. said:

The most spectacular Weissenborns I've seen were on display at the Aloha Spirit exhibit of 'ukulele and Aloha shirts that just closed at the Casa Romantica in San Clemente. It's a matched pair of custom concerts made ca. 1920 for a player named Walter Brunner, still in the original case. They're from the Jim O'Mahoney collection. I've never seen anything like it. View attachment 70616

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WoW...Thank you for sharing these amazing treasures!

The one in the MGM sound sample used to be mine and I'd love to talk story. It came to me in the mid 70s as part of a multi-instrument purchase, basically thrown in for free. Unfortunately at some time in its past the neck had been broken at the heel and it was missing the 12th fret. It had also been the victim of a badly done repair involving glue and a screw. Individual notes rang like a bell but the intonation was awful, so chords were hopeless. It went into a case and rarely saw light of day until 2009 when I became interested in ukulele and learning to play.

So, after owning it for almost 30 years, I look at the brand inside the sound hole and was amazed to say the least. Like many people I was familiar with Weissenborn lap steel guitars but didn't know they had also made ukuleles. I traded it to Mike Aratani because I knew he would get it properly restored which shows in the video. I also got to watch him pick out and set up the Kala acacia tenor which is the one on the left in my avatar. Mike told me he sold it to a collector in Japan (didn't say for how much though).

Apparently Weissenborns are popular in New Zealand. Tony Francis seems to be making mainly guitars but also does a replica of a deluxe concert. http://tonyfrancisinstruments.blogspot.com/p/ukuleles.html Click on the picture to get a nice blow-up of his work. Also check out his 2013 blog where he details the restoration of the twin of the one that I owned.

Great story! Thank you geetee!