Kumalae Ukulele / « July 11 1921 » / a gift from the past

A couple of years ago I boought at Elderly.com a Kumalae ukulele. This Ukulele is in goog shape, there are just two cracks on the table (like most kumalae or old Hawaian koa ukuleles from the 20’).

The strings pegs were old wood pegs, and the ukulele was very hard to tune, so I put on the head new tuner (without hole modification)

The sound is realy great, very punchy and loud. The ukulele is well playable and strumming are very easy on it.

This uke is so light : 220 Grammes with new tuner… incredible.

This instrument is beautyfull and I love it.

One day I had a very nice surprice.

I was doing a picture of this Kumalae outside, in the sun and suddenly, I have seen somme letters and numbers written on the side of the head with a pencil. I haven’t seen that before but it was a date.

JULY 11 1921

Sudenly this ukulele had really some more value for me. I imagine this was the date that the first owner had bought the ukulele, or maybe an important date for him ? I don’t really know. But those 4 letters and 6 numbers are for me a gift from the past.

Terrific little Kumalae