Tuesday 31 January 2012

Jolli-Joe. The U.K Uke

Heres an unusual uke, The Jolli-Joe. an all metal uke. bit of a collectors peice this one. Paint work still in very nice order, and very blue too!
Not a lot of restoring on these, this was in especially good order to begin with.
Once i cleaned it up, and polished the metal work it looked fab!
Sold to someone in the USA who loved ukes and blue things...so i guess this uke was perfect for them!
Not the best sounding uke though, and tricky to set up right too




George Formby Dallas-B

Here is a Dallas-B. My favourite uke to restore.
So good i've done 6 of them.
A nice starter BU, easy to hold, lightweight, with a decent tone & volume.
This particular one was stripped down from the tatty old finish. i find they look much nicer naturally finished. These were made from Rosewood, but originally finished with a nasty red glazed varnish. These ukes have a very heavy solid bezel, and nice flange round the resonator too.




Saturday 28 January 2012

Best repair job yet!

Heres the latest from the Barn.
a little Dulcetta uke, these are the same as the john Grey ukes. quite common on ebay, and often in poor shape, this is where i come in!

This one was stripped, sanded and re-finished. then fitted with new tuners, nut, hooks & shoes and a new skin. all in all quite a lot of work. but worth it i think.
A great little player with a very loud chunky sound!