Any info on this G-Strings soprano?

Midori Onquest

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Somebody is offering this. She paid $765 including case and tax (DA Music Place, Dayton Arima, Honolulu. She says she bought it a few years ago. She says it's from a factory production line, not made by a single luthier. It doesn't have model number. She does not know what wood it is. Any thoughts and info greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 

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Somebody is offering this for swapping with my Kanile'a K-1 concert. She says they should be about the same value. I paid $990 plus tax (Easy Music store, Honolulu in 2017.) She paid $765 including case and tax (DA Music Place, Dayton Arima, Honolulu. She says she bought it a few years ago. She says it's from a factory production line, not made by a single luthier. It doesn't have model number. She does not know what wood it is. Any thoughts and info greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I know a little. G String is a company that was founded by Derek Shimizu. He relocated and is now building G string ukuleles out of his home in Las Vegas. I don't think he has a production team and he is doing all his own work now. I think most of his stuff now is custom stuff and most of it goes to Japan. Some of his high-end stuff is listed on Ukulele Friend and you can occasionally find stuff on eBay or Reverb. I think there's a custom tenor on Ukulele Friend now listed for about $6,000.

Derek's a pretty cool and humble guy. I met him at his home in Las Vegas. If you look into the sound hole where the neck is, you might see another label with some initials. The initials will tell you who was the primary person who built it. Assuming the numbering convention did not change, it looks like that particular ukulele is the 115th ukulele made (either that month or that year) in June 2009.

It looks like that one you are considering was one of the later ones made by G String while they were still in Hawaii, by the fact that the headstock logo is with abalone, whereas the earlier G string ukuleles had wood colored logos and the newer bridge shape is shorter. I have one from June 2005 as a point of comparison. My head stock and bridge look different and you have geared tuners whereas mine were friction (long story).

I would guess that the wood is Koa. That looks like a nice one with the sap wood stripe and the abalone rosette. Very attractive.

I have no idea if G string ukuleles retain their value or not. They are certainly more rare.

I hope that this helps.

Cheers,
Rich
 
i own a G-String long neck uke as well, similar to the one in your photo. From Rich's post, mine must be older since it has the wood headstock inlay instead of abalone.

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Mine has a specially interesting "back story" - the person ion UU that I bought it from thought that the "marking" on the sound-hole label meant that it was a second & sold it as such. I followed back w/the original purchaser & was told that it was actually a childs "art work" from one of his kids!

Love my G-String & won't likely give it up anytime soon, though I could be tempted to buy another!

Mahalo!
 
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