Live 'Ukulele

My life has been busy as of late! The Institute of Hawaiian Music is giving me all kinds of great opportunities. Aside from the college classes, there are gigs to be played, songs to be learned and arranged, and concerts to attend!

One of the guys that I’ve met through the IHM program, Axel Menezes (who plays mean ‘ukulele), came back from spring break with an interesting item in tow – an old electric ‘ukulele that he found in the dirt on Kaua’i. It was in pretty rough shape so he took it apart and sanded it down. Some of the stock parts went missing as he worked on cleaning it up, so now all that’s left is the main body, neck, pickguard, and string mount.

After some obscure Google searches I was able to identify the ‘ukulele and get a little bit of info on it. It’s an old Ukulet (or Ukelet) ‘ukulele from the 60s made by the Japanese company Tombo. Modeled after a Fender Strat, the Ukulet came with a case that had an amp built into it.

The original look is pictured on the right (photo from Lardy’s ‘Ukulele Database).

Naturally, we feel a need to restore the Ukulet to its old playing condition! So we’ve taken it upon ourselves to try and figure out how to bring the Tombo back to life.  Here’s the one that Axel found:

There’s a good deal of work that needs to go into it, but it will be a fun project.

Knowledge wanted:

Does anyone know anything about how the bridge on a Tombo ‘ukulele is setup? All that’s left on this ‘ukulele is the string mount and it looks like there is at least one other piece needed to support the string. All the pictures of stock Tombos I’ve found are not detailed enough to see the bridge in. Any information you could give would be appreciated. Feel free to leave a comment

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