Ukulele Estate Sale: eBay Window Shopping
October 2, 2009
The Hidden Lake Estate Sale looks like a mine of great vintage ukes including this William Eden custom tenor. But the real stroke of genius is that they’re offering a weekend getaway where you can try out all the instruments for yourself.
Oh crap, the Kala UBass has hit the UK.
This uke is advertised as a “1910’s Nunes Ukulele”. But I don’t remember ever seeing a fretboard like that on an instrument that old.
A shoebox full of fascinating ukulele photos knocking around this week:
- African American man with ukulele #1
- African American man with ukulele #2
- African American woman with ukulele.
- Farm girls
- Lynne Thorne ukulele pin-up.
- Teenage girl playing a ukulele.
About the “1910 Nunes”, it might be that old. A friend was recently given a very old weissenborn that had been “maritinized” with a newer fretboard and bridge. The owner was an elderly woman, a retired professional musician. She claimed that she was given the ukulele as a child in the mid ’20’s. I wonder if someone in California wasn’t “improving” ukuleles with that modification.
The African-American lady only has one tuning peg, and it’s stuck in backwards!
Jon: Could well be a case of that. The seller doesn’t mention any modifications, though.
karl: It was the 30s, the Great Depression. I expect all our ukes will be like that before long.
Yes Al, the fretted and fretless u-bass have arrived and I spend a lot of my time saying to customers “yes that bass really is coming out of that uke” . They really are incredible !
What a clever pinup pose! Why didn’t I think of that?
S.U.S.: I may well be in touch with you about the Ubass. What amp do you recommend with it?
Jodi: It certainly gave me a few ideas too.