Weissenborn Ukulele Repair

This stunning little 1920s Weissenborn style 3 ukulele fell into my lap on Ebay. I'm very happy. There are so few of these in existence, that even most hardcore Weissenborn collectors have never seen one. It is said that only a couple dozen ukes were built by him.

This one was missing about 4 inches of the checkered maple and rosewood binding known as "rope binding".
I decided to make it myself using a glue-up of strips, trimming at an angle across the glue-up to get the check pattern, gluing the strip in place, then leveling it to the top. I then applied a light finish over the new strip to match. It is so close now you'd have to really look hard to tell at all. It plays and sounds amazing too!

Please feel free to contactme about any guitar repair issues, or if someone you know has a Weissenborn,
Kona, or other instrument needing rope binding repair!

Comments

[Woodshed]

Nice work. I love the look of those Weissenborn ukes - particularly the way the rope binding goes all the way up the neck. That's just showing off.

[Pat]

Does the inlay effect the sound of the final instrument

[James Hannon]

I located a Weissenborn ukulele for sale in a antique shop.
They are asking less then $650.00 for it. The bridge needs repair or replacement.It has the rope pattern around the sound hole and around the upper outside edge of the ukulele.
The rope pattern also is along the side and end of the fret board. There are some minor scrathes in the varnish but no cracks or seperating of glue joints that I could find. No strings are installed. It appears the rope design may be missing in a section along the top bottom area It has the burned in label which seems correct. I have photos if you would need them. Can you the me something about this Ukulele, model, approx date made, where made, etc.
Thanks Jim Hannon