Sandor Nagyszalanczy’s ‘The Art of Vintage Ukuleles’ Describes the Early History of the Instrument—and the Nation that Nurtured It

BY NICOLAS GRIZZLE | FROM THE SPRING 2025 ISSUE OF UKULELE MAGAZINE

What does an ukulele collector do with hundreds of vintage instruments and collectable ephemera? Why, write a book about them, of course!

Readers of Ukulele magazine might recognize the name Sandor Nagyszalanczy. His articles about vintage ukuleles and the history associated with them have been gracing our pages for years. Now, he’s combined descriptions and photos of hundreds of vintage ukuleles with meticulously researched history in a 350-page book called The Art of Vintage Ukuleles (Centerstream Publishing). The result is possibly the most comprehensive book on the subject to date.

“The Art of Vintage Ukuleles is the ultimate collectors’ book,” says Jim Tranquada, who, with John King, authored Ukulele A History, a definitive book on the instrument. “This is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of ukulele made by major makers—and more than a few oddities.”

“My whole purpose has been to try to dig deep and find out as much as I could about these marvelous instruments,” says Nagyszalanczy. “I figured the ukulele deserved a book that was as complete as I could make it. Of course, nothing is ever complete; I have new stuff even since the book’s been published, and it just came out in July!”

Nagyszalanczy started collecting when vintage ukes were cheap. He caught the collecting bug in the 1970s and soon realized there was a lot of history behind this truly American instrument. “I love to visit junk shops and music stores and flea markets and so on,” he says. “Eventually, I started seeing these instruments that were hand painted and stenciled and had decals, and I realized that that these are really folk art, that these reflect something about American culture.”

The book reflects this in its organization, with eight chapters, starting with the ukulele’s Portuguese and Hawaiian origins then traveling to the mainland before diving into decorations and details; celebrity and signature ukes of the stars of yesteryear; innovative and weird instruments; wartime ukuleles; the second wave in the 1950s; and ephemera. It’s interesting to see the parallels between American history and the evolution of the ukulele. It’s not always a pretty picture, as some of the artwork in this collection will attest, but the book does a thorough job of showing where the ukulele was at any given period in American history through the 1960s.

Nagyszalanczy says one of the most challenging parts of writing this book was researching instruments that could not be found online. So he made phone calls, sent emails, visited libraries, and combed through databases of old newspapers for anything he could find about some of the long-gone instruments and companies. Oftentimes, even if the ukulele in question was not particularly remarkable, the story behind it would be.

And sometimes, the ukes were just outright spectacular. Like the Martin 5k in original, immaculate condition that he got for $120. (It’s likely worth five figures today.)

“That instrument, to be honest, my mother found for me,” says Nagyszalanczy. “One of her regular haunts was a place called the White Elephant in Burbank (in Southern California), and she called me from there one day and said there was a very fancy (ukulele) for sale. I knew about a (Martin) 5k but I’d never seen one. So she started describing it and I said, well, how much does he want for it? It was about $120, and I just said buy it right now. So by the time she got home with the instrument, the dealer was already calling her, saying a guy had come in who said he’s willing to pay you three times what you paid for it. And my mom said, ‘No, this is for my son.’”

Nagyszalanczy’s “Holy Grail” uke has changed over the years, simply because he has found and acquired so many of them. It was once a Knutsen harp uke, and also used to be a Harmony Aerial uke, but both are now in his collection. So now, it’s a Stroh ukulele. “I’d be surprised if they even made a dozen of them,” says Nagyszalancy. In the style of the more popular Stroh violins, it’s an ukulele with a horn attached to a resonator on the soundhole. It sounds, and looks, like an old phonograph, with an eerie, tinny sound. He was able to borrow and photograph one for the book, but hasn’t had the opportunity to purchase one. But what fun is collecting without the thrill of the hunt?

Out of all his ukuleles, Nagyszalanczy’s favorite is quite possibly an unbranded instrument made by an unknown maker. “Mike Longworth really wrote the first comprehensive book on the history of Martin’s instruments, and I bought a couple of ukes from him, including one that that he suspected might have been an (Martin) employee instrument,” he says. “I remember at one point when I had maybe a couple hundred ukes, I decided one day that I’d tune up and play every single one of them. And then I narrowed it down to the few best-sounding ones, and this concert-size instrument that I’d gotten from Mike was my favorite. I mean, it just sang. It just had a great, great sound and voice, and played well. It was a quality instrument, clearly handmade, and clearly one-off because it had certain elements that you could just tell were very fussily assembled and wouldn’t have been part of a production run of any kind.”

As another potential favorite, he adds, “And, of course, my very first one.” That 1950s or ’60s Martin Style 0, purchased for him at a thrift store for $1 in the 1970s, still remains in his collection. “Now, more than 40 years after I received that $1 Martin uke, I’m still playing it,” Nagyszalanczy writes in the book. “It’s traveled with me all around the country and bears the dings and scratches from decades of happy strumming. Although I’ve owned and played many ukes that were fancier and definitely more expensive, it’ll always hold a special place in my heart, with a sweet sound that never fails brings a smile to my face.”

Nagyszalanczy says the next chapter in his collecting journey is finding a permanent home for future generations to admire, learn from, and get inspired by these vintage instruments in person. “I started collecting very specifically with the notion that someday my legacy would be to help create either a dedicated ukulele museum in California, or at least have my collection be part of a museum that is willing to display a more comprehensive set of instruments,” he says. The Art of Vintage Ukuleles seems like a good step toward that goal.

Order a copy from bookshop.org, where your purchase supports independent bookstores! Also available from Amazon.