Could you help me to identify this uke ?

Alaouet

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Hello,

i'm a newbie on this forum and I hope I'm posting my first topic at the right place

I bought some months ago a vintage ukulele but the seller was not able to give many details about it... just thinking that it was a Hawaiian one from the 1910'/1920'...

I'm quite curious to know a little bit more about it then I thought that maybe somebody from your community would be able to identify it...

Thanks :)







 
Hi, and welcome to the forum. I cannot answer your question, but your provisional identification seems to be accurate. The uke has the characteristic appearance of a Hawaiian made Koa instrument of that period.

There are one or two individual design features which could help identify the maker. The shape of the head stock is slightly different, and also the bridge.

I wish you the best of luck with your quest. The uke does look like an interesting find.

John Colter.
 
Body shape, bridge and headstock also suggest mainland (the headstock shape is similar to the one used on Slingerland banjo-ukuleles, and Vega banjos), but the flush fretboard and the integrated heel are typical for Hawaiian makes. So I'm in limbo on this one. Is there no Tabu-mark on the inside? And does anybody here have John King's book on early Hawaiian makers? It's almost certainly not by the more famous luthiers (Nunes, Kumulae) but there are plenty of other to choose from...
 
Thank you very much for your help :)


Harmony seems to be the most plausible track. I also asked Lardy from http://database.ukulelecorner.co.uk, here is a part of his answer :

I could be wrong but I think the Ukulele is an early Supertone dating from sometime between 1920 and 1925. (...)
I have not seen anyone but Harmony use that headstock shape. I have not seen the bridge design before but it falls in a time when Harmony were changing their designs and would fit as an intermediate between the older design and the newer, (I do not know the exact date of the change)


for some details, I'm still not 100% sure because this one has wooden turners and no frets markers, but for the rest, it seems very similar to the pics of the Harmony vintage ukuleles I found on the Web.

Thank you again for helping me :)


@ukulelekarcsi
No, nothing inside.
 
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