Travel back in time with this vintage self-chording baritone ukulele. Similar to an autoharp, except the stopping mechanism does not use felt pads. Instead, the all-metal stopping mechanism presses the strings over fret-like humps. It is an odd bird! I believe there were at least two, if not more, versions of this instrument. This is the earlier model with a 1928 patent (#1,692,560) to John Mokrejs. There is another patent associated with what I assume are later KeyKords, a 1932 patent to Dean Solenburger. I believe the instrument was made in Chicago by Stromberg-Voisinet, the precursor company to Kay. In about 1932, Stromberg-Voisinet became the powerhouse Kay. This is the second one I\'ve found in the last month. This one has a simpler shaped body, rather than the fancy two-point body. There are two issues with it. First, some numbskull did a poor job of gluing two front cracks and three rear cracks. He did not even wipe off the squeeze out, so there is still dried glue squeeze out along the front and back cracks. Second, the metal housing over the chording mechanism is simply missing. Researching the inventor of the stopping mechanism, John Mokrejs, I found various texts on musical theory from that era, particularly \"Lessons in Harmony\" from 1913. I would reasonably presume it\'s the same fellow. All the little stopping arms can be adjusted with slotted screws. If they\'re not adjusted just right, strings buzz. I\'ve got them all adjusted just about right now, I think. Another odd thing about this instrument is that, although it is a baritone ukulele, the pictographic chord shapes are soprano ukulele shapes! I guess there was a lot of soprano ukulele music in the 1920s, not baritone uke music. So, a player would just match the chord picture on the KeyKord with the picture on the sheet music. I know some folks argue that it\'s a tenor guitar, not a baritone, but it has ukulele chord shapes on the buttons, not typical tenor guitar chords. The metal tailpiece is marked \"Bell Brand.\" No case. Today, I did just put on new Aquila nylgut baritone ukulele strings. For USA orders, shipping is free. It will be shipped in brand new cardboard 46” by 19” by 7” guitar box with plenty of new 1/2\" bubble wrap. Questions? Please check out my store, “The 1970 Time Travel Trailer,” for more cool vintage stuff, including a bunch of vintage guitars (and a few ukuleles, banjos, fiddles, mandolins and amps).

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