Ukulele history If you can't see a menu bar here, then allow blocked content! Ukulele history The ukulele isn't a native or ancient instrument: it started with Portuguese immigrants to Hawaii in the late 19th century. The largest wave of Portuguese immigration lasted about 30 years, and 11,000 Portuguese immigrants would arrive in its first decade. The ukulele is not a direct descendant of any particular instrument; rather it is a hybrid, most likely of the machete and the five-string rajï¿½o. These instruments are all in a family of small guitar-like instruments dating from the 18th century. These and similar forms are still popular throughout Latin America, Spain and Portugal. These and other European instruments were originally imported into Hawaii by the immigrants, and continued to be imported through the late 19th century, even after local makers started building their own. ï¿½ Manuel Nunes, Joao Fernandes, Augusto Dias and Jose do Espirito Santo all arrived from Portugal in Hawaii on the Ravenscrag, in 1879, along with 400-plus other immigrants, to work the sugar cane fields.

Fernandes allegedly surprised and delighted the dockside natives by playing tunes on a small stringed instrument. This has been variously identified as a Portuguese braguinha (a nickname for a Portuguese instrument also known as the cavaquinho ), or a small four-stringed Madeiran guitar called a machete (from the Portuguese-owned Madeira islands, sometimes called a machete de Braga after the city and district in northern Portugal where the instrument originated), and even described as both a rajï¿½o, a small, five-stringed Portuguese instrument. ï¿½ Because these little instruments were often carried by farm workers to the taro fields, they became known as 'taro patch fiddles' and also as pila li'ili'i - little fiddles. Nunes, Dias and Santo were also cabinet makers - and as a sideline, instrument makers. Once their contract ended and they left the sugar cane fields, theyï¿½quickly started making versions of their native instruments for themselves and their friends - identified on contemporary ads for their shops as machetes. ï¿½ Dias opened a small shop making and repairing musical instruments (as well as furniture), in 1884.

Santos and Nunes opened their shops in 1888. ï¿½ The next year, the ukulele was played at a party aboard a British yacht anchored at Honolulu. The trio of women performers included Princess Victoria Kaiulani. Nunes and his sons opened a ukulele production factory in 1910; although Nunes died in 1922, it was still making ukuleles in the 1930s, after the others closed. His son, Leonardo, took over at the end. Although Nunes would later claim to have invented the ukulele, that claim has since been debunked (or at least challenged). That's not to deny him his important role in its early development, however. The little instrument became an almost instant hit among the native Hawaiians. Even the royal family of Hawaii took to playing it. In part because of their patronage and also the use of native woods and materials, Hawaiians took to it and soon developed their own musical style and sound around it. Native Hawaiians opened their own manufacturing shops in the first decade of the 20th century.

According to John King , the uke's tuning came from the rajï¿½o: "The ï¿½ukuleleï¿½s famous my-dog-has-fleas tuning was actually borrowed from another Madeiran instrument, a five-string guitar called the rajao (pronounced rah-ZHOW). The original machete tuning is open-G; when and why it was changed to my-dog-has-fleas is one of those little mysteries that always leads to more questions than answers. In the early 1890s, a fellow named Holstein, who headed up the music department of the Hawaiian News Co., published a pamphlet entitled Chords of the Taro-patch Guitar, which is what Honoluluans called the rajao in those days. Holstein, an astute businessman, also included directions for tuning the ï¿½ï¿½ukulele-guitarï¿½; you tune it, he said, the same as you tune the top four strings of the taro-patch." The uke has many cousins in the musical world.

Aside from the ancestral guitar, the family includes the aforementioned braguinha, cavaquinho and rajao, and also the charango, timple, tiple and Venezuelan cuatro, as well as the tenor or parlour guitar and the more recent "guitarlele" or U-tar. In 1907, Martin started making ukuleles, but they were not very popular and soon stopped production. They started up again in 1915. In 1917, Martin changed its design to cater to the growing craze for the instrument and their model took off. In 1920 they moved to ukes made from Hawaiian koa wood. In 1925 they made their first concert-scale uke. At its peak in 1926, Martin made 14,000 ukuleles that year. Read Martin ukulele history here and here . ï¿½ Ukuleles were first shown on the mainland in 1893, at the World's Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, but they didn't develop much interest. However, the performance of Hawaiian music helped cement the popular association between the ukulele and Hawaiian culture.

The exhibition also appeared in San Francisco at the California Mid-Winter Fair, 1894. Other Hawaiian musicians took to the mainland vaudeville stage circuit, performing in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Buffalo and Atlantic City over the next decade. The first printed reference to the word ukulele comes from the Hawaiian Gazette of 1895. Koa, a native Hawaiian wood, made its first appearance on ukuleles at a party aboard the British yacht Nyanza, anchored at Honolulu, in 1889. That further helped associate the uke with Hawaii and Hawaiian culture. Espirito Santo was the first to advertise "ukuleles" in 1898. That same year Dias advertised his "instruments made of Hawaiian wood." The abbreviation "uke" dates to 1891, from a travel book about Hawaii. The ukulele was first shown at the Worldï¿½s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. By 1910, the instrument was being sold by the Ditson Co. in New York City. The 1911 play, "The Bird of Paradise" featured an accompaniment of Hawaiian music.

In 1915 the ukulele was shown in a Hawaiian exhibition at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and that seems to have launched the mainland craze. Ukulele-maker Dias died two weeks before that show opened and never witnessed its popularity. But from that show, the uke's popularity began to soar. That same year, Sears Roebuck bought the Harmony guitar company to make ukuleles and cash in on the craze. Hawaiian music also became incredibly popular, as a result. Ukes were mass-produced in the thousands - Harmony sold 500,000 in 1931 alone. Ukulele fever rapidly spread across the mainland, branching out to develop new sizes and designs. In the decade following its 1915 introduction, mainland companies like Martin, Regal, Harmony, Lyon and Healy, National, Dobro and Gibson had all started making models. They made ukes forï¿½themselves or as rebranded instruments for other companies.

In reaction, Hawaiian makers created a distinctive trademark, protected by legislation, with authority to say "Made in Hawaii, U.S.A." It was illegal to use the marker on any ukuleles not made in the Hawaiian Islands. Vintage Martin ukes remain the most sought-after ukuleles among collectors (the 5K models being the most treasured). Around the turn of the 20th century, some manufacturers also started producing tenor guitars, which are like the progeny of a ukulele and a standard guitar. The small size, ease of play, friendly sound and low cost (compared to many other musical instruments) helped keep the uke popular and it soon spread across to Europe. In 1917, a Hawaiian maker, Alvin D. Keech introduced his "banjulele-banjo", which became known as the banjolele or banjo ukulele. Although Keech (who later moved to England) claimed to have invented the instrument, and who trademarked the name 'banjulele', there were earlier pioneers working on the same design.

John A, Bolander of California filed a patent for a banjo ukulele design with a closed back resonator on June 25, 1917. He had been manufacturing his "Boldander's Ukulele Banjo" at least since 1916. See here for photographs. The BU was most popular in the 1920s and '30s, and was commonly used in Vaudeville acts where its loud sound was more easily heard than the sound of the ukulele. George Formby was one its most successful players. Concert scale BUs seem to have been developed in the early-mid 1920s. Many of the early BU makers were banjo makers as well, but some, like Gibson, made a range of stringed instruments, while Slingerland also made drums. I can't find a reference to any tenor or baritone scale BUs made until fairly recently. The Waikiki beach boys of the 1920s gave the uke a romantic, exotic mystique that suited the islands, but the real popularity came from the mainland where ukuleles sold literally millions in the pre-war decades.

Small, easy to carry, fun to play and inexpensive - it became the most popular musical instrument in that pre-war period. Tin Pan Alley and vaudeville both took up the uke in many acts and songs, and you can still find many song sheets and books from that era with ukulele chords shown (see my page on vintage music ). In an era with no at at best primitive amplification for stage shows, the banjo ukulele became popular for its greater volume. The uke quickly becameï¿½the most popular musical instrument in the world. Even Edward, Prince of Wales played the ukulele in the mid-1920s. Harmony built a special, gold-engraved uke for Edward, with his coat-of-arms and seal embossed on it. Uke fever even reached into Germany. A 1924 newspaper story reported uke sales in Germany were growing rapidly, and that the tax applied to musical instruments was helping Germany pay down its war reparations debt. Performers like Arthur Godfrey , George Formby , Roy Smeck (the Wizard of the Strings) and Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) helped further popularize the instrument between the wars.

Formby took the uke from the stage to the silver screen, starring in dozens of films playing the banjolele (or, less often, a ukulele). Edwards also starred in films, but was better known for his popular music radio shows, at one time broadcast on 400 radio stations. Manuel Nunes, the last of the original ukulele makers, died in 1922, still in Honolulu. In 1927, his one-time apprentice, Sam Kamaka, patented his pineapple uke, aimed at a fuller, richer sound than the Portuguese style. The Depression was hard on the ukulele. Competition from the mainland had already hurt local producers, and the Great Crash forced several Hawaiian manufacturers to close. John King notes that, by 1933, uke-maker Sam Kamaka estimated he was selling 15 ukuleles a month, down from three to four hundred a month in better times before the Depression. By the mid-late 1930s, the guitar had started to muscle in and was taking over in terms of popularity.

In part that was because the electric guitar (and its associated amplifying and recording technologies) had been improved enough that the guitar was increasingly able to be part of the bands and orchestras of the day, so it picked up momentum through popular music. Before that, unamplified guitar was lost in the sound and volume (the banjo was the popular stringed instrument in orchestras for its volume). Also the arrival of some talented jazz guitar players like Eddie Lang, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt helped make it an increasingly popular instrument. After WWII, the guitar rocketed in its ascendancy as the most popular instrument for the new sound - R&B, rock & roll, and pop. Ukes were on the way out, at least as a popular instrument. Although they would continue as a Hawaiian instrument, and there was a brief resurgence in the post-war years, they were not the popular instrument of the 1920s. At one point in the late 1960s, there was apparently only Hawaiian uke manufacturer left.ï¿½ In 1947, Albert Augustine , a string and instrument maker in New York, worked with chemical and plastics producer DuPont to make the first nylon strings for guitars.

The success of his experiments meant nylon soon replaced gut and silk strings on instruments. Nylon stings were endorsed by classical guitarist Andres Segovia , which gave them credibility among musicians. I can find no reference to when nylon strings were first used on ukuleles, but it was likely soon after they started to appear on guitars. The uke went through another minor surge in popularity in the late 1940s when US servicemen returned from the Pacific war with ukuleles and Hawaiian music. But it more a novelty spurt than a Renaissance. All-plastic ukuleles were first manufactured in the 1950s. The most popular was the Islander, made by Maccaferriï¿½s Mastro Plastics Corp. The guitar maker, Maccaferri, became intrigued with making instruments out of plastic. He applied his instrument-making skill to produce the "TV Pal," a plastic ukulele. By March, 1950, Mario Maccaferri was making 2,500 of his plastic ukuleles a day. More than nine million of these had sold by 1958.

Sales were spurred by its low cost and a link with the popular television show " Arthur Godfrey and his Ukulele ." Godfrey is also credited with introducing the baritone uke, which he asked Eddie Connors , of Vega instruments, to design for him. Connors was also a well-known banjo player in the 1920s. Tiki King notes this as 1961, but the Vega brochure for this instrument seems to be dated 1951. However, according to Tiki King's database , Favilla is also credited with inventing the baritone. Regardless, it was Godfrey who promoted it and made it popular. Maccaferri also made plastic banjo ukes, from the 1940s until the 1960s, produced by his Mastro Industries company. Other companies like Emenee and Carnival made similar products. Most of these plastic banjo ukes were designed for children. The first use of ukuleles to teach music in the classroom happened around this time. In 1952, American educator William Mihalyi gave Islander ukuleles to a fourth-grade class to teach them the basics of stringed music.

That mini-revival lasted through the 1950s and sputtered on through the 1960s. The changes in popular music in the 1950s and 60s saw it give way to the guitar and other instruments, especially the electric variety. Aside from the novelty acts of Tiny Tim and Martin Mull, and a few performances by George Harrison of The Beatles, almost no one played the uke commercially or professionally outside Hawaii in the 60s and 70s. Popularity eroded under the influence of the guitar. Several companies continued to make or sell ukes in the 1960s, but they slowly evaporated until few were still on the scene by 1970. By the 1970s, there was only one major manufacturer left - Kamaka , started by Sam, an apprentice of Nunes. In the late 1960s and early 70s, Canadian educator, J. Chalmers Doane, tried to resurrect the uke through his "Ukuleles in the Classroom" program, using his own Northern ukulele design, manufactured in Japan.

In the 1990s, the picture began to change. Thanks to the Internet, ukulele performers, makers and aficionados were able to meet, communicate, and share music. That rapidly blossomed into a subculture, and today the ukulele is one of the most popular musical instruments around. It's popularity is growing rapidly, with one of the largest and most active online communities. Performers like Jake Shimabukuro , Mike Okouchi , Israel Kamakawiwo'ole , Brittni Paiva , and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain have been able to find a new and appreciative audience. New, brilliant ukulele musicians have found a large audience through the Net, and helped spread the passion throughout the ukiverse. Dozens of new manufacturers have sprung up to cater to that market. ï¿½ The uke is enjoying its third bloom and it's not even begun to reach its peak. Ukuleles are being used today for a wide range of music - not just Hawaiian - including pop, jazz, folk, blues and classical. Just search online and on YouTube to see what is being done with the uke.

Banjo ukes are seeing a similar resurgence, and there are more manufacturers of them today than there have been for 40-50 years.ï¿½ This is only a sparse overview. For more details, read more here and here and here and here and here . And here . For a very interesting comment on the history and Portuguese ancestral instruments, read here . JJA Library copyright © 2004 Mike Zwerin Paris: Betty Boop played the ukulele, as did Marilyn Monroe in "Some Like It Hot." George Formby, George Harrison, Tiny Tim and -- in "Blue Hawaii" -- Elvis Presley played ukuleles. There is currently something of a ukulele revival in such far-flung places as Hawaii (the instrument is associated with surf music), Australia, Tahiti, California, Japan and Paris. A ukulele is a four-stringed instrument that evolved from the Portugese cavaquinho on certain islands in the Pacific Ocean. Patented in Hawaii in 1917, the most common model resembles a cute little Hawaiian guitar and it is tuned to the inflection of "my dog has fleas" (the fourth string goes up not down).

One recent Saturday night, the Ukulele Club de Paris threw a public party at the New Morning, which was decorated like a Tiki bar for the occasion. They are scheduled to tour Australia in June and Japan later in the year. Their CD "Manouia" is out on Universal/France. It is a cooperative group, there is no leader; the eclectic and lucid guitarist Dominique Cravic is one of an assortment of guiding lights. He has played with Lee Konitz, Tal Farlow, Steve Lacy and Larry Coryell and currently he accompanies the veteran French singing star Henri Salvador. Cravic also continues to lead "Les Primitifs du Futur" (Future Primitives), a band of old-time jazz enthusiasts that includes the cartoonist Robert Crumb on banjo and mandolin. Crumb and Cravic first met while shopping for rare old 78 RPM records in a flea market. They shared their love of early 20th century popular music and jammed together with a washboard player.

(The only new music Crumb likes is when new people play old music.) Crumb wrote a blurb for orchestra member Cyril LeFebvre's illustrated "Ukulele Method Book." "My first 'real' musical instrument was a plastic 'Arthur Godfrey' ukulele given to me by my parents as a Christmas present when I was 12 years old," Crumb wrote. "I had attempted to make a cigar-box ukulele but that didn't work out too well. "Anybody can learn to strum chords on a ukulele and you can take it anywhere and whack away on it while the gang sings the latest popular songs and old-time favorites. It serves as the perfect start-up string instrument. From it one can graduate to the guitar, tenor banjo or mandolin as I eventually did. Once I saw a nice 1920s ukulele with a slogan printed on the front of it, which read, 'Music self-played is happiness self-made.' Words to live by." In Brazil the Portugese cavaquinho has remained more or less in its traditional form; there are young cavaquinho virtuosos in Brazil.

The Hawaiians, on the other hand, made adjustments like replacing the steel strings with nylon to make the sound softer and the attack less violent. There are only four strings to deal with not six, and ukulele tuning is friendlier for chording than a guitar's. The height of its popularity was in the 1920s, when Hawaiian music was big in general. It was a vaudeville instrument -- it can be defiantly corny. In the past, ukulele players were off the radar, alongside broomstick bass and pennywhistle players. Theirs being a fiercely treble instrument, the Parisian club's seven ukulele pickers (they all also sing) have added a baritone saxophone to play the bass part, similar to Adrian Rollini's role on the bass saxophone in the 1920s. (There is also a percussionist.) Cravic is one of those instrumentalists who makes his love of playing music obvious, and he clearly has a lot of fun with a ukulele. It is also clear that he takes his fun seriously - he studied classical guitar at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris.

Cravic and his fellow club members perform well-constructed compositions on sophisticated, expensive ukuleles with engraved Dobro-like coverplate resonators built specially for them by Mike Lewis, an English luthier in Paris. Their repertoire includes Hawaiian and Javanese tunes, sambas, comedy songs, repetitive instrumental passages a la Terry Reilly, original compositions, and old favorites such as Hoagy Carmichael's "Hong Kong Blues." "This is not a toy! This is a real musical instrument!" is printed large, in red, and somewhat defensively on the first page of LeFebvre's method book. Followed by the slogan: "Adopt the uke attitude!" -- an attitude Cravic illustrates by carrying his ukulele in a tennis-racket sack. Happiness self-made. Mike Zwerin originally published this article in the International Herald Tribune. _Patents for Music Instruments_ From Popular Mechanics July, 1936 Click to Enlarge During this early period, electric semi-acoustics (such as the Gibson ES-150) dominated the market.

Based in Fullerton, California, Leo Fender survived the Depression by repairing, then designing, amplifiers and electromagnetic pickups for musicians -- chiefly players of electric semi-acoustic guitars, Hawaiian (lap steel) guitars, and mandolins. In partnership with Clayton "Doc" Kauffman these were manufactured under the brand name "K & F." Kaufmann pulled out of the venture and Leo changed the name to Fender's Radio Service, and then Fender Guitars. Here are some early patents for a Hawaiian style guitar and a pickup for an acoustic guitar. Early Experiments is Steel Guitars and Acoustic Pickups F. H. Kislingsbury Hawaiian Guitar Paatent 2,888,463 W.L.Fuller Hawaiian Guitar Paatent D-110,178 H. DeArmond Acoustic Pickup Patent 2,455,046 H.S.

Sunshine Skyscraper Guitar Patent D-114,773 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Between 1932 and 1949, individual craftsmen and companies had experimented with solid-body guitars, but none made a significant impact on the market. With its distinctive "twang", Leo Fender's Broadcaster design put the solid-body guitar on the map; however, the Gretsch Drum Company already had that name trademarked for one of their drum sets. At first, Leo just dropped the name altogether and sold what are now known as "Nocasters" (they didn't have any model name on the headstock at all). This didn't last long and Leo started putting "Telecaster" on the headstock around 1951. Decals from 1954 on cite the following two "use" patents that describe how the mechanism works. Leo Fender also patented the exterior or "design" of the telecaster, as shown further below with a picture of an actual Telecatser.

The Gretsch Broadkaster Trademark Patents that appear on the Telecaster Headstock No Patent information on the Headstock, 1950-1953) Leo Fender Telecaster Use Patent 2,573,254 (appears 1954-1960) Leo Fender Telecaster Use Patent 2,960,900 (appears after 1958) Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Arthur Smith was one of the first musicians to use the Broadcaster to record "Guitar Boogie" in 1947. From then on, the solid body guitar took off. Early Boadcasters, Nocasters, and Telecasters are eagerly sought and command high prices. This website has an infinite amount of detail about the Telecaster. A useful accessory is the tremolo arm or whammy bar. This is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the tailpiece of an electric guitar to enable the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings for a short period of time.

In turn, this changes the pitch to create a vibrato, portamento or bend effect. Both Leo Fender and Doc Kauffman were also pioneers in this area. Here's a picture of Bill Kirchen and his VERY famous Telecaster (equipped with original Fender pickups). You can watch him put this marvelous instrument to very good use as he imitates the styling of the noteworthy guitarists of the 20th century in his version of Hot Rod Lincoln. Left: Bill Kirchen Mid: Fender Telecaster Right: Whammy Bar Original Fender Telecaster Design Patent No. D164,227 Whammy Bar Patent No. 2,741,146 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings The Humbucker Pickup, designed by Seth Lover is used to eliminate low frequency noise. Magnetic "hum" is mostly created by transformers and power supplies inside various electrical equipment utilizing household AC current. As AC current is put though a coil, it induces a magnetic field around the coil that quickly becomes weaker with distance. When it reaches the guitar pickup, the strength is very slight, but once put through various pedals and amps it becomes much more evident.

Using a guitar without humbuckers, a musician would hear a slight but annoying hum from the amp in silent sections of the music. Sources of magnetic hum generated in the studio and on stage include, but are not limited to, high-power amps, processors, mixers, motors, etc., as well as criss-crossing power lines. Seth Lover's Humbucker Pickup, Patent No. 2,896,491 Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings The Les Paul Guitar In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson Guitar president Ted McCarty was determined to launch a viable competitor. The Les Paul model hollow body electric guitar was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and pop star, electronics inventor, and accomplished jazz guitarist Les Paul. There is still debate about the extent to which Les Paul actually designed the instrument that bears his name; it is very clear that Ted McCarty's name is on the patent.

Here are pictures of Rusty Bogart and Bruce Katsu, some of our favorite local masters of the Les Paul, along with the Patent Diagram Rusty Bogart (l) and Bruce Katsu (r) Flanking the Les Paul Patent Ted McCarty Patent 2,714,326 Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings The Gibson "Flying Vee" Gibson first manufactured prototypes of the "Flying Vee" guitar in 1957. Production guitars were made of korina wood, a trademarked name for limba, a wood similar to but lighter in color than mahogany. The Flying V, along with the Futura (Explorer) and the Moderne, made up a line of modernist guitars designed by Gibson's then-president Ted McCarty. These designs were meant to add a more futuristic aspect to Gibson's image, but they didn't sell well. After the initial launch in 1958, the line was discontinued by 1959. Some instruments were assembled from leftover parts and shipped in 1963, with nickel- rather than gold-plated hardware.

The "Flying V" was rescued from obscurity by legendary bluesman Albert King who had an unusual playing style -- he learned from a man who was left-handed -- he played the guitar with his right hand with the strings in position for a lefty. This led to a very unusual style -- some observers thought that King's captivating licks were due to the guitar and the "Flying Vee" had a burst of enthusiasm. When Jimi Hendrix started using the instrument, Gibson was motivated to reissue the guitar. Watch Albert King perform his signature tune, Born Under a Bad Sign, blowing everyone away even though he had a broken ring finger at the time. Albert King and the Flying Vee Ted McCarty Patent D181,867for the "Flying Vee" Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings The Fender Precison Bass The Fender Precision Bass (often shorted to "P Bass") was the first widely-available model electric bass guitar. Designed by Leo Fender and brought to market in 1951, it is the most significant bass design of the 20th century.

Audiovox sold a solid-body, fretted, guitar-style electric bass in the late 1930s, but these were custom-made in very small quantities. As it comes from the factory, the Precision Bass is alder or ash-bodied equipped with a single split-coil humbucking pickup, a 1-piece maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard and 20 frets. The Precision Bass is among the best-selling electric basses of all time and is still being manufactured today. Here is a picture of Steve Wolf of Swing Speak , our DC-Area Guru of the Precision Bass. Here is a link to the Kennedy Center where you can watch Steve and the group play. Steve Wolf and the Precision Bass Leo Fender's Design Patent D169,062 for the Precision Bass Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Drums Slingerland, Ludwig and Zildjian are the most famous names in Percussion instruments. The Slingerland Drum Company was founded by H.H. Slingerland in 1912. The company started out importing ukeleles from Germany but set up its own production because it could not meet demand.

Soon, they produced their own banjos and ukeleles and eventually, also guitars (including electric guitars from 1936 or earlier). Production of drums was started in 1927, in answer to the very successful entry of the Ludwig & Ludwig drum company (below) into the banjo market. The first Slingerland drum kits came out in 1928. For a long time, Slingerland drums were synonymous with such jazz drumming greats as Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich; Elton John's drummer, Nigel Olsson, also used Slingerland sets widely. The company remained in the Slingerland family until 1970. After that, Slingerland changed ownership multiple times until it was acquired by the Gibson in 1994. The Slingerland brand still exists in a variety of drumsets, including Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich signature sets. Gene Krupa Ad from Popular Mechanics November, 1939 Click to Enlarge In 1910, the Ludwig & Ludwig Company was founded by brothers William F. and Theo Ludwig, initially manufacturing a bass drum pedal capable of playing faster beats than competing products.

Production facilities were in a rented barn on the southside of Chicago. The Ludwigs next developed a hydraulic action timpani and in 1916 invented a spring mechanism --the basis for the current Balanced Action Pedal Timpani. Production then expanded into other types of drums and banjo-type instruments. During the 1925-1930 period, Ludwig made two models of ukulele-banjo, each being prized by players of the instrument (Ludwig is known by collectors as being one of the three best historical makers of ukulele-banjos, the others being Gibson, and Jack Abbot.) During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the company was forced to merge with the C.G. Conn Company. William F. Ludwig, who disliked his lack of involvement with the design and manufacture of the instruments after the merger, left the company in 1936. He opened his own company, the W.F.L. Drum Company, in 1937, initially producing the Speed King Pedal. In 1955, the Ludwig division was purchased back from Conn and renamed the Ludwig Drum Company.

The Speed King is still the industry standard. The Avedis Zildjian Company is a cymbal and gong manufacturer founded in Istanbul, Turkey by an Armenian named Avedis Zildjian during the Ottoman Empire. It is the world's largest manufacturer of cymbals. At nearly 400 years old, Zildjian is the oldest family-run business in America and one of the 300 oldest companies in the world. They also sell drum-related accessories, such as drum sticks. The first Zildjian cymbals were created in 1623 in Istanbul by Avedis Zildjian, who was looking for a way to turn base metal into gold, created an alloy combining tin, copper, and silver into a sheet of metal that could make musical sounds without shattering. Avedis was given the name of Zildjian (Zilciy�n) by The Sultan, from the Turkish (zil - cymbal, dji - maker-seller, ian - a common suffix used in Armenian last names) and began an industry in 1623, the details of whose main product remained secret for generations.

It became family tradition that only the company's heirs would know the manufacturing process. The Zildjian Company moved from manufacturing noisemakers to frighten the enemies of the Ottoman Empire to manufacturing its cymbals as musical instruments in the 19th century. Here is a photo of Tommy Barrick, one of DC's hottest drummers using Slingerland Drums, the Ludwig Speed King Pedal and Zildjian cymbals as they were intended. Click here to listen to Tommy leading the way in the RKO Swing version of Sing,Sing,Sing Tommy Barrick and the Tools of His Trade Cymbal: Patent 2,189,095 Speed King Pedal: Patent 2,132,211 Snare Drum: Patent 2,166,733 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Trumpet The trumpet has the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC. Probably, they evolved from animal hone.

They are constructed of brass tubing bent twice into an oblong shape, and are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the trumpet that is ultimately amplified into a clear note by the flare of the "bell" . The length of the tubing determines the pitch of the instrument; thus high pitched trumpets are small and larger versions are in low registers. The most common is a transposing instrument pitched in B-flat allowing one instrument to imitate instruments of a variety of sizes. Older trumpets (e.g. the Bugle) did not have valves; however, modern trumpets have either three piston valves or three rotary valves, each of which increases the length of tubing when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch. We are showing Henri Selmer's 1939 patent for a variation on the transposing trumpet. We also have a picture of Tom Cunningham , leader of DC's most popular big band. Click here to listen to the Tom Cunningham Orchestra play Jimmy Lunceford's Frisco Frog No mention of the Trumpet can ever be complete without a sample of the magnificent Louis Armstrong .

Here is "Pops" playing and singing on the best version of Stardust ever recorded. As a bonus, here's I Can't Give You Anything But Love and Dream a Little Dream With Me . Tom Cunningham, King of the High Registers Henri Selmer Patent 2181346 Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Trombone The trombone is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player�s vibrating lips (embouchure) cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. The trombone is distinguished by a telescopic slide with which the player may vary the length of the tube to change pitches while keeping embouchure constant. Lesser known valve trombones use three valves similar to those on a trumpet. The word trombone derives from Italian tromba (trumpet) and -one (a suffix meaning "large"), so the name literally means "large trumpet". Trombones and trumpets share the important characteristic of having predominantly cylindrical bores (meaning that the tubing does not change diameter until the bell). The most frequently encountered trombones are the tenor and bass counterparts of the trumpet.

They are both pitched in B-flat; this means that with the slide all the way in, the notes of the harmonic series based on B-flat can be played by modifying the embouchure alone. Fixed extension of the slide allows others series to be played as if the instrument were a bugle. Since trombonists generally read music in concert pitch, this dual capability is a big help in improvising solos, as there are two ways of getting to every pitch (lip and slide). We have included photographs of two of DC's best trombonists, Steve Shaw (of the J Street Jumpers) and Bobby Blankenberg (of Doc Scantlin). They are shown flanking Al Johnson's 1931 Trombone Patent. Click here to listen to Steve and the J Street Jumpers play Is you Is or Is You Aint My Baby? Jack Teagarden was probably the best all-time jazz trombonist -- watch him in this 1952 jam session with Buddy Hackett. Jack plays and sings in this very beautiful video of Stars Fell on Alabama.

Steve Shaw and Bobby Blankenberg Al Johnson Patent 1,789,589 (L.) Adolphe Sax (M) French Patent #3,226 (R)The Sax Family Clockwise from top left: contrabass, bass, baritone, tenor, C melody, alto, F mezzo-soprano, soprano, C soprano, and sopranino Click Here for pictures of historical saxophones Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings While proving very popular in its intended niche of military band music, the saxophone is most commonly associated with popular music, big band music, blues, early rock'n'roll, ska and particularly jazz. There is also a substantial repertoire of concert music in the classical idiom for the members of the saxophone family. Here is a video of Charlie Parker , the all-time master of the alto saxophone. King Curtis was a legendary tenor sax man - watch him playing Memphis Soul Stew with the Kingpins. Of the small number of solo artists who play the baritone sax, Gerry Mulligan stands out; here he is playing Moonlight in Vermont .

In Washington DC, we are forunate to have an abundance of good sax players. Recently, a "Three Tenors" concert was held, featuring DC's masters of the tenor saxophone, Don Lerman, Chris Watling and Bruce Swaim. A fourth (Charlie Hubel) was scheduled to attend but got snowed in. Here are the Three Tenors and Henri Selmer's Patent on a valve modifaction for the Tenor sax. The Three Tenors: Don Lerman, Chris Watling and Bruce Swaim Selmer Sax Valve PatTARGET = "NEW"ent 2,151,337 and Mouth piece Patent No. 1,789,639 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Accordion "What's this?", you say, "the accordion has no place in Swing Music!" Au Contraire, there are several artists, local and international who have contributed their distinctive accordion sound to swing. At the top is Clifton Chenier , the master of zydeco .

It is hard to forget the incredible Flaco Jimenez, the master of South Texas conjuto, sepecially his work with Ry Cooder on "He's Got to Go". Locally, we have Chris Watling of the Grandsons who occasionaly perks up a number with his accordion. In Pittsburgh, the Mystic Knights of the Sea join in ensemble for their Power Polka. However, Bill Haley and the Comets, the group that ignited the Rock'n'Roll craze, featured an accordion. You can watch the squeeze-box in action in this clip of "Rock Around the Clock". However, the accordion is not without its detractors. My parents used toencourage my musical studies by saying: "If Mr. Levine says that your sax playing is bad, you'll have to study accordion." Gary Larsen echoes this sentiment. The Accordion in Popular Culture Bill Haley, the Comets and the Accordion Gary Larsen's Take on the Accordion Click to Enlarge The accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist.

It is played by compressing or expanding a bellows, while pressing buttons or keys, causing valves called pallets to open which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel called reeds that vibrate to produce sound inside the body. The Accordion, Embellished in All Its Glory C. Farny Accordion Design Patent D-111,486 J. Vassos Accordion Design Patent D-111,555 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings The instrument is sometimes considered a "one-man-band", as it needs no accompanying instrument; the performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment�consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons�on the left-hand manual. It is often used in folk music in Europe, North America and South America. It is commonly associated with busking. Some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is sometimes used in both solo and orchestra performances of classical music. The oldest name for this group of instruments is actually "harmonika", from the Greek 'harmonikos', meaning 'harmonic, musical'.

Today, native versions of the name "accordion" are more often used - it is a reference to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, which concerned "automatically coupled chords on the bass side". Here is a great video of Flaco Jimenez, Freddy Fender and Willie Nelson performing together. Acoustic (Grand) Piano The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with felt covered hammers. The hammers immediately rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies them. The piano is widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment. It is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the most familiar musical instruments. It is sometimes classified as both a percussion and a stringed instrument.

The word piano is a shortened form of the word pianoforte, which is seldom used except in formal language and derived from the original Italian name for the instrument, clavicembalo [or gravicembalo] col piano e forte (literally harpsichord with soft and loud). This refers to the instrument's responsiveness to keyboard touch, which allows the pianist to produce notes at different dynamic levels by controlling the speed with which the hammers hit the strings. From a rock and roll standpoint, the piano means Jerry Lee Lewis . In DC, we have a star named Blair Carman who is the nearest thing to a clone of Jerry lee. You can Watch Blair Carman and the Bellview Boys do the Killer's Breathless. Grand Piano Frame Patent No. 1,686,726 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Electric and Electronic Pianos An electric (or electro-acoustic) piano is a small with amplification devices to produce greater volume, akin to the amplified acoustic guitar. They had an advantage of being quite compact and were very attractive to the rather small houses of the period. One of the most beautiful of these is the Storytone Piano.

Here is a picture of a Storytone piano at the 1939 World's Fair as well as a Storytone in the home of Paul, one of our readers. This is an extremely rare and historically important instrument. The Storytone piano was built in 1939 in a joint venture between Story and Clark and RCA - the piano has normal strings and action but no soundboard - the sound is amplified by pickups and a speaker system making it the world's first practical electric piano. The sound is very beautiful considering its design during the infancy of amplified instruments. The design complements the early TV sets that were shown and the two constitute a portrait of the Future of home entertainment. (Our vintage television page has more details) The Storytone Piano was made famous by artist Earl Hines . Note the similarity to the Zaiser design patent shown below. The Storytone Piano at the Fair and in Paul's Living Room Click to enlarge any photo Will Zaiser Design Patent D146,243 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings An electronic piano is a keyboard instrument designed to simulate the timbre of a piano (and sometimes a harpsichord or an organ) using analog circuitry.

Electronic pianos work similarly to analog synthesizers in that they generate their tones through oscillators, whereas electric pianos are mechanical, their sound being electrified by a pickup. Electronic pianos were first introduced by Wurlitzer in the late 1950s, more portable versions followed in the early 60s. Ray Charles brought it into prominence with "What I'd Say." The Fender Rhodes was created to emulate it. Wurlitzer made these into the 1980's, and many of them are still in use. There is a big restoration market for them currently. Other electronic pianos date from the 1970s and were made in Italy, although similar models were made concurrently in Japan. An exception is the range of instruments made by RMI in the USA from 1967 to approximately 1980, which became one of the more popular electronic pianos used by professional musicians. Most electronic pianos (including the RMI) are not velocity sensitive, in that they do not vary their volume based on how hard or soft the keys are played, like an organ.

Electronic pianos became less popular in the 1980s when the digital piano and polyphonic synthesizer became available and affordable enough for both professional and home use as an inexpensive, smaller and lighter alternative to an acoustic piano. The triumph of the synthesized piano first came in 1982, with the development of the Kurzweil K250; today, synthesized pianos have attained a remarkable level of realism. John Cocuzzi is one of DC's best keyboard (and vibraphone) men. You can watch him playing St. James Infirmary at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. John Cocuzzi and His Father Frank on Drums Clifford Andersen Patent No 2,881,651 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Hammond Organ The Hammond organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1929. It was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, but by the 1960s and 1970s, it had become standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, rock, and gospel music.

The original Hammond organ used additive synthesis of waveforms from harmonic series made by mechanical tonewheels which rotate in front of electromagnetic pickups. The component waveform ratios are mixed by sliding drawbars mounted above the two keyboards. Although many different models of Hammond organs were produced, the Model B-3 is most well-known. In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the overdriven sound of B-3 was widely used in progressive-rock and blues-rock groups, most notably played by Al Kooper and Garth Hudson. Although the last electromechanical Hammond organ came off the assembly line in the mid-1970s, thousands are still in daily use. In the 1980s and 1990s, musicians began using electronic and digital devices to imitate the sound of the Hammond, because the vintage Hammond organ is heavy and hard to transport. By the 1990s and 2000s digital signal processing and sampling technologies allowed for better imitation of the original Hammond sound. Here in DC, Mark Jefferson of The Fabulettes -- He owns an A-100, the home version of the B-3.

He has stopped lugging it along and has moved up to a Hammond XB-2 that sits upon a Wurlitzer 200-A electronic piano. He does haul his Leslie Speaker to gigs. Watch Mark Playing for The Fabulettes . Speaking of Hammond Organs and Leslie Speakers, here's about the best track laid down in the 1960s: Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield doing Season of the Witch . Mark Jefferson of the Fabulettes Laurens Hammond's 1929 Patent 1,702,773 Don Leslie's 1962 Patent 3,058,541 Click to Enlarge Paul Fuller Design Patent D146,175 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Here are some other notable Wurlitzer jukeboxes. Paul Fuller Design Patent D111,599 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings First off, the Wurlitzer Model 24 - a design that was first offered in 1937.

It was the first Wurlitzer model to offer 24 selections instead of 12, an innovation that shook the industry where "12 is enough" was a maxim. This was also the first jukebox to incorporat illuminated plastics into its design. The company's transition from heavy wooden cabinets to a bright and modern deco style helped to establishe Wurlitzer's pre-eminenence in the coin-operated phonograph industry. Paul Fuller Design Patent D111,598 Click to Enlarge Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings Wurlitzer manufactured small "table model" jukeboxes for establishments with limited space. Above is the Wurlitzer Model 51, the rarest of all Wurlitzer table models, because it was the only one made without illuminated plastics. It was manufactured in 1937 and reflects the early 30s pre-light-up design. It was probably intended as an "economy" model. Counter for JUST THIS PAGE

Question: Which musical instrument was patented in Hawaii in 1917 ?
Answer: UKELELE