T Plastics Beat Guitar

Swinging Sixties

I got this Ukulele partly, (well let's be honest, because it was cheap), because I think it looks cool and retro, and partly because it appears to be Hong Kong's only venture into the plastic Ukulele market and there is not a lot of information about it so I thought by owning one I could find out more? There is nothing that I didn't already know about markings wise on the Ukulele, "Made in Hong Kong" (I knew that), a capital T in a circle (probably a brand logo but no idea who for?) and "no 394" (no idea at all??). Chordmaster, (the main Internet site for plastic Ukuleles), lists it and says they were produced between 1964 and 65, (which looks right), but no more.

On to the Ukulele itself, The front artwork and the headstock logo are both paper prints that have been stuck on, (making it harder to clean because I don't want to take them off), The strings it came with were not proper strings. They looked original but were all of the same thickness and were just lengths of nylon, (I have binned them). The tuning pegs are push in friction, like Carnivals but they appear to hold reasonably well. The body is a standard size 12 fret Soprano with no 0 fret and is all put together reasonably well. It looks less cheap than a Mattel, and if this is Hong Kong's only foray into the plastic Ukulele market its a pity they didn't continue, they did quite a good job with this because it plays as well as, and sounds at least as good as a Carnival too.