Tru-Fret Soprano Ukulele 1920s

Vintage Collectable Tru-Fret Soprano Ukulele with Original Case

I am selling a very collectable vintage Tru-Fret soprano ukulele that dates back almost a century.

The instrument is quite nice looking and in good shape considering its age. It has a beautiful floral design on the front and comes with the original case which is in poor condition.

The neck looks like it might have been re-glued or reset at some point in the past.

The bridge, nut, tuners, metal fretboard and finish appear to be original. The strings are new Oasis fluorocarbon and require breaking in. The action is a tad high.

According to an article written by Sandor Nagyszalanczy in the Summer 2020 issue of the online magazine “Ukulele”:

[…] a clever Chicago instrument maker and inventor named Harry E. Hall endeavored to simplify uke construction by eliminating the need to install a dozen or more separate frets. Hall came up with a process of pressing a single piece of thin metal into a complete fingerboard, frets and all. Hall applied for a U.S. patent for his pressed fingerboard design in 1925.

The final patent was granted in 1928, and Hall licensed his invention to the Globe Music Company of St. Charles, Illinois.

In period advertisements for the Tru-Fret ukes, Globe proclaimed that buyers would have “No more fingerboard troubles . . . our exclusive new patented metal fingerboard, produced at great cost after a year of experimenting, provides you with ukuleles that are guaranteed to be absolutely perfect in tone.” They further claimed: “Through the use of a special die, ‘TRU-FRET’ ukuleles are guaranteed to be fretted accurately to 1000th of an inch.” The same die that stamped the frets also formed the nut—the raised bar that supports and spaces the strings at the top of the fingerboard. Globe’s advertising boasted that “the nut is always in the exactly correct relation to the frets—neither too high nor too low. This eliminates all buzzing and rattling of the strings.”

Please research this vintage Tru-Fret soprano ukulele and study the photos carefully before purchasing. You should have no trouble finding Sandor Nagyszalanczy’s excellent article online.

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