#6 string ukelele full

The one-piece neck is narrow at the nut but much deeper and rounder than the usual Hawaiian style, and very comfortable to play. The soundhole is ornamented with some wood marquetry. The back is made of two bookmatched pieces pressed into a noticeable arch while the top has an almost diagonal grain pattern in places. The body and neck are made of dark Hawaiian koa with some variable grain patterns. Like nearly all period Hawaiian style ukes the workmanship is relatively crude by continental (read: Martin) standards but the instrument has a wonderful feel and sound.

This uke is one of these very rare Leonardo Nunes creations, likely dating to the early/mid 1920's. designed a 6-string ukulele he dubbed the Liliu, a similar idea but with a larger body and slightly different string layout.

#6 string ukelele full

This uke is sort of a hybrid, easier to play (and tune!) than a full Taropatch but offering some of its lovely multi-coursed sound.

The 8-string Taropatch was being promoted at the time, but that instrument generally used a larger body and longer scale. Nunes designed and built several interesting uke variants but this instrument is the most unusual: a 6 string soprano with four courses, the middle two strings doubled and the outer courses singles. He produced instruments sold through a number of mostly west coast jobbers and music dealers branded Ukulele O Hawaii, although strictly speaking they were made on the mainland! Despite this territorial anomaly, his ukes retain a totally Hawaiian character, built in the original Iberian-influenced style and using native Hawaiian koa wood. Apparently tiring of working for his father, Leonardo left the Manuel Nunes firm and Hawaii in the mid-1910's to settle in Los Angeles, quickly setting up to build Ukuleles there. He was the son of Manuel Nunes, the Portuguese/Hawaiian maker who billed himself as 'Inventor of the Ukulele' in the 1910s. Leonardo Nunes was one of the better native ukulele builders of the first period of the instrument's popularity lasting from the early 1910s to just before the Depression. 1920, made in Los Angeles, natural varnish finish, koa wood body and neck, black tolex hard shell case. Leonardo Nunes 6 string Soprano Ukulele, c.