Category: Ukulele History

The Portuguese cavaquinho is small 4-stringed instrument in the guitar family. A version of the cavaquinho, the machete, is considered the direct precursor to the modern Ukulele. (As a side note,...

Here's an image of the ukulele offerings from the 1928 Clifford Essex and Sons musical instrument catalog: The text reads: "BANJUKE" (BANJO-UKULELE) The Ukulele provided a...

Here's an image of an old catalog offering "Camp Line" brand ukuleles and Banjo ukuleles (along with mandolins and guitars): The text reads: Camp Line of Ukuleles, Mandolins, and...

Here's an interesting image of an old advertisement for ukulele lessons from The Hawaiian Institute of Music: The text reads: BE POPULAR! ALWAYS the life of the party, the center of...

Thinking about buying a ukulele but can't decide if you want to go with the standard, traditional, "figure eight" regular body shape or the more quirky pineapple shape? Or maybe you're just...

Here are a couple of catalog images, dating from the pre-1930's, advertising the popular Gibson UB series of Banjo Ukuleles: Image 1: This first advertisement announced the release of the...