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Original Post By:
Pinbeak
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Date: 3/18/2010 5:59:19 PM |
I've heard about finds at flea markets, but how about this. A friend of mine knew I played the uke, and noted that someone was throwing one away at the landfill. He dropped off a dusty case with rusted latches at my office shortly before noon and when I opened it I almost peed my pants. The "throw-away" uke is a Martin Style 0.
As close as I can guess it is a pre-1930 model. CF Martin & Co is stamped on the back of the headstock, but there is no decal on the front. The tuners are not wooden pegs, but they are not the 1950's style tuners that have a nut on the front of the head. There was also a page from the "5-Minute Guaranteed Ukulele Course" which shows the tuning as A D F# B, and directs the player that "high-grade sheep gut strings are especially recommended". Based on these clues, can anyone confirm my suspicions? I'll send a photo to Uke Yak this evening.
There is a crack on the lower right of the body, which has been repaired. Otherwise, the instrument is in great shape (albeit a little grimy). Needs new strings, but the ones that are on it allowed me to take it for a test ride this noon hour. WOW it is loud. Yikes! |
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Posted By:
Ukester Brown
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Date: 3/18/2010 9:43:15 PM |
| If the wood is kind of brownish- I'm missing that uke.... I'm mean I'm really missing it. I want the story too! It pays to let friends know about the uke thing for sure! Congrats!!
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Posted By:
cowbelle
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Date: 3/18/2010 10:10:27 PM |
| Lucky you to have such a thoughtful friend!
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Posted By:
Mattman
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Date: 3/18/2010 10:30:07 PM |
That's wonderful!
Buy your friend dinner or something
for thinking of you. Just too cool.
Recycling at its finest!
-Mattman
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Posted By:
Frank B
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Date: 3/18/2010 10:35:21 PM |
| It's a wonderful story, and I am happy for you. I am sad to think that many other fine instruments have suffered that same fate. Frank B.
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Posted By:
Pinbeak
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Date: 3/18/2010 10:39:11 PM |
| You bet Mattman, He is definitely getting something special in the next week, I can guarantee that. Right now I'm puzzling over what strings to use on this little darlin' (whom I've named 'Betty Lou').
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Posted By:
Craig
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Date: 3/18/2010 11:02:15 PM |
| Wow!!!
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Posted By:
Tom B.
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Date: 3/19/2010 12:06:44 AM |
| Great story. Congratulations. Another clue to the age is whether the fret wires are T frets or bar frets. As for the tuners, if they're not original, take one out and check to see how well they fit the holes in the headstock. If the uke originally had wooden tuning pegs, the holes will be too big for the mechanical tuners.
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Posted By:
William
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Date: 3/19/2010 1:38:52 AM
(Updated: 3/20/2010 8:51:22 PM)
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To add to the festivity, if you want a set of Aquila strings for it, I will send you a new set free. They will be soprano weight rather than concert strings. They will put less load than strings tuned ADF#B, and have much better sound.
wdt He replied off-post,,,,strings away 3/20...soprano Gcea.
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Posted By:
Ernie
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Date: 3/19/2010 2:05:43 AM |
I was going to recommend Worth clear medium strings, but it's hard to beat free strings!
What a great story!
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Posted By:
mLKauai
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Date: 3/19/2010 6:31:51 AM
(Updated: 3/19/2010 6:32:20 AM)
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Throwing into the landfill a Martin style O...
because:
- it has a repaired crack on the top.
- it was cluttering up my junk...
- it it it.... I just can't come up with any sane excuses.
With clean stlye O's going for up to $700. today on ebay, and really funky ones for more than half that, I'd say you got one of those "stories of great finds" we often refer to.... and you didn't deceive or harm anyone to get it.
That rates up there in the top of that category.
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Posted By:
allenhopkins
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Date: 3/19/2010 12:51:46 PM |
When I visited Robert Wheeler a decade or so ago, to buy the Regal taropatch I play now, he showed me some of his impressive collection of ukuleles. One element of it was a wooden case containing six Gibson ukes, set in a series of separate compartments. He said that it had been part of a collection of instruments used to teach elementary school music, and had been pulled from a dumpster behind the school district warehouse (I forget where -- Michigan, maybe?), after a "clean house" sweep of unused and unwanted* musical gear. Makes you think just how many great instruments have been discarded over the past century.
*unwanted by the school district, that is -- not by us!
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Posted By:
mLKauai
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Date: 3/19/2010 2:25:14 PM |
| I guess the dumpers had some tags showing their original price point; $20 or so, and figured... junk.
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Posted By:
Pinbeak
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Date: 3/19/2010 3:25:13 PM |
'Betty Lou' has bar frets Tom B. As for the tuners, they are obviously original; no indication that they have been tinkered with. Also, the tightening screws on the end of the peg heads are standard and not phillips head.
Any suggestions for cleaning this instrument? My wife has suggested Murphy's Oil Soap. Seeing the panapoly of cleaning suggestions I've seen in other places on this bulletin board, I'm not really sold on that suggestion.
BTW, GREAT story about Rob't Wheeler's discovery of a nest of Gibson ukes in the school dumpster.
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Posted By:
tejastani
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Date: 3/20/2010 5:23:48 PM |
| Not a uke story, but cool-- one of my step-kids' inlaws was a pastor with a prison ministry. He saw some musical gear being thrown in the dumpster one day and investigated. There were several Fender Mustangs, a Les Paul, a Princeton amp, and a short-scale Bronco bass. He ended up selling it all for a tidy sum-- I found out too late. The prison ID mark was scratched into backs of the guitars. Wow, that's mighty mojo. If you can't play the blues on one of those guitars, you can't play the blues.
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Posted By:
Tom B.
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Date: 3/20/2010 6:33:43 PM |
Pinbeak, according to Brudda Bu's site, the stamp in the back the headstock was used until 1933, and the bar frets until 1934.
For cleaning, I use Virtuoso cleaner and polish, which Soybean has recommended. It's formulated specifically for vintage instrument finishes. Guitar Center and others sell it.
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Posted By:
spidra
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Date: 3/22/2010 3:23:37 PM |
| Amazing.
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Posted By:
looney tunes
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Date: 3/27/2010 9:59:21 AM |
| Great thread, makes me want to go hang around dumpsters. Loon
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Posted By:
singndance
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Date: 3/28/2010 10:49:00 PM |
| No loon, what you want is a friend who hangs around dumpsters!
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Posted By:
huck
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Date: 4/12/2010 2:27:39 AM |
| let's hope things come in threes -- someone just gave me a style 0 that was forgotten in a vacation home for many years. no stamp on back, no "made in usa" label on the front, so i guess it's from some time between 1932-1963. it's in rough shape (multiple cracks, finish flaking off on the back), but it sounds and plays great. good luck finding the next 0.
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Posted By:
AlanJ
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Date: 4/12/2010 11:50:07 AM |
| "sounds and plays great" the 4 most important words for vintage instruments that you'd like to play rather than hang on a wall and look at. I've seen so many players get passed or go for very low bids on eBay. Cracks can be stabilized and even the finish can be redone should one want to go that far.
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