PASSING IT ON

Out in Michigan is a wonderful man who makes wonderful ukuleles.  David Talsma, who I have met, and who’s ukuleles I have also met, not only crafts ukuleles that are universally recognized as superior, but is classic Hollywood handsome and  projects an aura of charm and trust.

You don’t have to take my word, when it comes to his superior ukuleles, as two of my Ukulele Noir colleagues, Davis Sweet and Greg Hawkes, went to all the pain and trouble, as compared to buying a Fluke at your local music shop, to acquire one, each, of David’s ukuleles, and you can view these two ukes at http://www.ukulelenoir.com/pages/ukuleles.html .

It has been reported that at a recent media encounter David said, "I like to make an instrument that not only looks good, it's going to be playable, probably handed down to the kids."

So to make a long story short, a woman is directed to me to evaluate her father’s ukulele.  He’s dead and her daughter,who plays the piano, doesn’t want it as a wall hanger because its dirty and old, so she, the woman, wants to sell it.

Sitting in my Uke Room, she had never seen so many ukuleles, she hands me her father’s ukulele.  It was dirty. No strings.

With a rag I brush the dirt and dust off and then I apply my magic Zenith Tibet Almond Stick and wipe the uke down with my rag.  Using very fine steel wool, a tool suggested by Mike Longworth, I clean the frets.  Using my gunsmith screw driver, which is  the only kind of screw driver one should use on a mid to late 20’s tuners, I remove one of the Grover tuning machines, clean it with the steel wool, and put it back.  Attaching a hardly used set of stings completes the process.

Her father’s uke is a C.F. Martin 1K.  With rosewood binding.  Normally Martin would use different grades of koa on the different styles. Thinking of a scale from 1 to 10, a 1K would rate 1 to perhaps 3.  2K? 4 to 6. 3k? 7 to 9. 5K? 9 to 10.

Her father’s 1k, which he bought new, has a body with grade 7 koa. Unusual and rare.  Talk about “killer”.  I played it.  It had the Martin sound.

It is my understanding, from books, which is what was read before the internet, that the most notorious underground collectible in the history of the world is a small coin purse made from a part of the dead Napoleon Bonaparte.   They sold his …………..

So I say, to this lady, who it turns out is a Unitarian Pastor,  as I hand her her father’s dirty ukulele, which I have processed into a 20’s Martin 1K, with 3 small cracks on the back that no one should do anything about, “Do you really want to sell your father’s…………”

I find it hard to explain my feelings when I encounter people willing to sell off that part of their ancestors that a ukulele represents.  But maybe I can.

The only yard sale ukulele of worth that I’ve ever encountered was a 1920’s Ditson Style 0, made in Nazareth, that this man’s mother had bought in high school and it was being sold as the little old lady, who was 90, was being shipped off to a nursing home.  Looking the son, right in the eyes, I negotiated.  This was about 5 years ago.  Not 1947.  I bought his mother’s uke for $10.00. 

During the negotiations I constantly referred to the Ditson as “the little guitar”. 

I would do it again in a heart beat. 

The person who referred her to me thought the uke might be worth $400, $450?  According to current eBay the 1K was worth $1,400.  I gave the Pastor a print of the eBay listing.  Looking her right in the eyes, I told her not to sell her father’s …………

November 4, 2006

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