Victor (Brand)

This is from a maker that I don't know anything about?!

The branding is "Victor" Ukulele and all I know, (beyond the specific it's not in the best of condition and needs a little love), is that it is a U.S. mainland made Ukulele from between the wars. The advert says it's made of koa but I will reserve judgement on that until I've seen it. Where in the U.S. it was made I can't be sure, (it looks like an East Coast /  Chicago Uke but there is no specific evidence)? Or exactly when? Again I would guess it was pretty early, from the first half of the 1920's. Now it's coming I will step up my research on the brand, and hopefully when it gets here it will be able to tell me something too.

It's here now and for all it's looking a bit "beat up", it is a much better quality than I was expecting. Yes it needs new tuners, there is a bit of the rosette missing and something needs to be done about the bridge, but there are no cracks, all the frets are there and I think it is solid Koa, (well the body at least). There is a sound hole label but the middle of it is missing so I have to guess the middle word; it starts with a H and ends with a an.  So it says "Victor Brand,  H_____an, Ukulele" (and yes I would guess that too). Sadly there is no other information about its original maker, age or anything. So far I have found nothing on Victor Brand Ukuleles but I will keep looking, (along with fixing the bridge and fitting new tuners).

Butser Mountain Music have managed to fix the bridge, (I don't think anything practical can be done about the rosette) and I have fitted some new friction pegs and strung it up with a set of fluorocarbons; and once again it is showing itself to be a much higher quality than I was expecting! I think I have solved the mystery of the Victor branding too. At the end of the 19th century a number of the pioneering recording and phonograph/gramophone making firms quit trying to sue each other and came together to form the Consolidated Talking Machine Co. which in turn was incorporated officially in 1901 as the Victor Talking Machine Co. with a headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. Though they started out just making phonograph machines they soon branched out into musical instruments too. I'm not sure if they made them themselves or got other firms, (like Oscar Schmidt maybe? The headstock looks very Oscar Schmidt), to make them under the Victor brand name.