Evaluation Day

I took some time to evaluate a few future projects today. One is really exciting, one will be a good project, and the others...

Let's start with the exciting project. A late 50's-early 60's Kamaka Pineapple uke.

That's a pretty nice looking uke from this distance.

I have another Kamaka from 1961 with the same styling and neck joint, so I feel very comfortable with my estimated date.

Hmm - there is a pretty thick overspray on the finish. The original obviously was chipping pretty badly. NICE curly figure on that bridge.

It's actually a pretty lousy overspray. Lots of swirls, bubbles, and fisheyes. And it is REALLY thick. The original finish on these ukes was nice and thin, this is thick like the counter at a bar.

Hard to show the bubbles, but there are some of them.

That fretboard looks pretty icky. Those dot markers are really looking dirty.

WHAT THE &#@?!&@ IS THAT? Who in their right friggin' mind takes a huge chisel to the neck of a uke, makes a giant divot, and fills it in with a hunk of plastic, a bit of epoxy, some matchstick, and who knows what else? I know - LET'S TAKE OUT PART OF THE FRETBOARD WHILE WE ARE AT IT!! Oh no, now the nut is too close to the first fret. WAIT, I CAN SOLVE THAT TOO - TAKE OUT THE FIRST FRET!!!

Oh, this is horrible.

I mean, there is nothing good about this at all.

*Sob* The slots aren't even capable of holding a string, and they also gouged out the fretboard while making them.

Oh hey, while we're at it, let's ditch the old tuners and buy some of the cheapest plastic import tuners available, and install them nice and crooked.

AAAANNNNDDD - Let's scrape off the decal, and drill a hole in the peghead.

The wood is so beautiful - this should be an incredible uke.

And hey, while overspraying the finish, don't bother to protect the soundhole or label, just let the finish flow in and destroy the fragile label. Good work.

Fisheyes in the finish. Oh man.

Once more - I really want to make a joke about British dentistry, but I shall refrain.

And thanks to the seller for taking a decent condition case and putting packing tape all over it so that the cardboard gets all ripped up while I open it.

Okay, deep breaths now - I've put a string on this uke, and given it a pluck. It sounds GREAT. Really, really good. It will be wonderful. But it needs a lot of work.

The plan is simple-

• Strip off all the finish
• Plug the hole in the headstock
• Remove that giant bucktooth of a nut, and probably remove wood all the way to the first fret, since there is already a big chip there. Replace with new wood, and the cut slots for the new nut and first fret
• Possibly pull all the frets, clean the fretboard, and refret
• Remove the bridge and figure out what is going on with it. It may have been removed in the past, and I want to position it correctly
• Refinish, and make a new decal for the headstock
• Make a new label for the inside
• Decide on tuners that are reasonably correct for this uke
• Always carry an album of these pictures with the uke, so that when someone says "Hey, nice uke." I can say "Check out what it USED to look like."

 Yeah, it's a simple plan. The uke is worth it, and will be wonderful, but oh man, what a disaster area.

These old Kamakas are my favorites - they sound just amazing. Wonderful to play.

Next up - a Venezuelan Cuatro!

Ray brought this over a couple months ago, a project for a friend of his.

Pretty cool!

Love the marquetry. Absolutely beautiful.

Huh - that's an interesting joint, and the crack is kind of ugly on those tuners.

That is one long soundport - oh wait, that is a massive break in the paper-thin pine sides of this instrument. It is incredibly delicate, and that is one nasty break.

The piece is missing, so I think we'll just replace the whole piece, it's really too thin to work with any other way.

Simple project, should turn out fine. I'll rummage through my pine boards and find something that will work.

Next - two baritone ukes! Twins!

Two Crest baritone ukuleles, made in Japan in the 60's, I guess.

Some loose binding.

Really low action on the first. Actually, no action at all. Severe backbow.

Here's the label.

Super high action on the second uke.

The tuners are the same as on the old Roy Smeck ukes from Harmony. Pretty cool.

One bridge has a screw in it. I don't know why.

Here's a spot where they sanded through the top layer of the plywood top.

Having taken a nice look at these ukes, I have made a decision - they aren't worth the effort. They might turn out okay, but it would be a lot of work for very little reward. I already have an old Favilla Bariton Uke that I'm working on, so I really don't need more. I'm not sure what I will do with these - probably Ebay.

And lastly, a tenor banjo.

Pretty cool - I'm guessing it's from the 20's, a short scale tenor with nice inlay work. The fretboard is dyed maple or something of that nature. All the hardware is there, which is always a shock to me.

A bit of dirt on the head - nothing bad.

I REALLY like those inlays.

The peghead looks a bit dinged up, and there is some cracking around a couple tuners. This is a problem.

More cracking, and possibly an old reglue job.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this was reglued at some point.

And here is the cause - these tuners are putting pressure DIRECTLY on the wood, without any reinforcement or anything. This tuner has sunken into the overlay, and is exerting pressure outwards when tightened enough for tuning.

It's really just a wedge forcing things apart.

Wedges on both sides - brilliant.

It's pretty dirty, but nothing awful. Certainly nothing like the Stewart a few months back.

The neck joint is really iffy. It seems to wobble and wander out of tune way too easily. I'll have to take a look at the joint and the dowel stick and make sure everything is alright.

I just love the way these things look.

Here's one more look at that peghead.

So, the plan is to do a bit of drill work on the peghead and insert a phenolic rod in there to take the stress of the tuner. I might pursue better tuners as well - why not?

Deciding not to do the baritones is a bit depressing, but I only have time for so many projects, and these just don't seem to make the grade. The Kamaka will be a nifty challenge, the Cuatro will be interesting, and the banjo will be very rewarding. If it would only warm up enough to get to work on some projects.