Harmony Canoe Ukulele
1950's

When the uke arrived, it smelled like it had been in someone's basement for the last 30 years, and like the Fluke I bought a year and a half ago, which wreaked of cigarette smoke, I put a tennis shoe deodorant ball inside the case. After four months, the smell improved considerably.
The uke was dusty, missing a string and missing the head from a tuning machine. I rummaged through the various guitar and ukulele parts that I have until I found a a suitable replacement. Though it looks a bit different, it does the job and I don't have to replace all the tuning heads.
From there, I got out the usual array of cleaning materials. Mini shop vac with attachments to get the dustbunnies out of the body, and Dunlop guitar polish for the body. I sometimes use lemon oil, but didn't on this one. With some elbow grease, it shined up well. I've used Aquila Red Strings, and thought they sounded okay. This time I used the Kala Red strings. I like using the red strings against the white plastic fretboards-snazzier, you know.


My initial take is that it's a bit quieter than the Fluke or the Kay, (which otherwise it closely resembles). It plays reasonably well, though. I think it will be the 'work' ukulele, since I have more than enough ukes here at home. It's pretty, too, so if I have it out at work, it at least looks interesting.
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