Great Ukes: The Wabash ‘Box’ is Unlike Any Other Ukulele

STORY AND PHOTOS BY SANDOR NAGYSZALANCZY | FROM THE SUMMER 2025 ISSUE OF UKULELE MAGAZINE

Anyone who knows me knows that when it comes to ukuleles, the more unusual a uke is, the better I like it. Among my favorite odd ukes are the Swagerty Treholipee and the airplane-shaped Stromberg-Voisinet Aero Uke. Although perhaps not as unique as the models just mentioned, the Wabash “box” uke deserves to be added to this list, as it employs some of the strangest instrument construction I’ve ever seen.

How strange? Well, let’s start with its slightly tapered and irregular rectangular body, which is built from no fewer than 15 separate pieces! The sides and curved ends are made from solid mahogany surmounted by thinner mahogany pieces on both top and bottom. The sides of the Wabash’s body feature thin concave inserts made of birds-eye maple; the same wood was used for the applied “pickguard” on the top.

Inside, this uke has no braces on the top or bottom, and there’s absolutely no lining or kerfing (strips that reinforce the connection between a stringed instrument body’s side with its top and bottom). The body pieces look like they were all simply glued together. Despite this lack of traditional construction, the Wabash shown here displays absolutely no signs of cracking or parts separating from each other.

The Wabash’s soundhole is rimmed with a single white plastic ring, and there are also white plastic strips at the edges of the uke’s thin top. The rectangular mahogany bridge is conventional in design, with small slots that secure the knotted ends of the strings, which rest atop a thin maple saddle. A “Wabash” logo decal is applied to the top just below the bridge. If you look closely, you can see that there’s a small musical note visible at the top of the stylish cursive “W.”

The construction of the neck is also unconventional. The neck is made up of three separate pieces: the neck itself; the headstock, which is joined to the neck with a simple butt joint (I’m guessing there’s got to be at least a thin dowel reinforcing this joint); and a heel piece. The heel is the weirdest part of this. It’s a small curving piece that’s glued between the neck and the body to reinforce the connection. There doesn’t appear to be any other actual mechanical joinery (dovetail, rabbet, etc.) connecting the neck to the body. The instrument’s scale length is 13 inches, which is about the same as the majority of soprano-sized ukes.

Other rather cool features of the Wabash uke include a white plastic overlay on the squared-off headstock topped by a center stripe of attractive multi-wood marquetry. The neck features an applied rosewood fingerboard that extends over the body, terminating in a graceful curve. The fingerboard is set with 12 thin, bar-style frets and three pearl dots, one each at the third, seventh, and tenth frets. (Why no dot at the fifth fret? Who knows.) The tuners are the same kind of friction-type tuners found on other ukes of the period and feature classic chess piece–style black Bakelite knobs.

So, how does this Wabash ukulele sound? In a word, just decent. The sound is sonically well-balanced with not too much treble or bass, but the strings don’t produce any colorful overtones. The uke isn’t very loud, even when strummed enthusiastically, most likely due to the body’s odd construction.

Wabash ukes were the creation of the David Wexler & Company (DWC), founded in Chicago in 1920. DWC’s business involved the manufacture and distribution of educational and recreational products for the musical instrument industry, primarily through catalog sales. DWC customers included more than 7,000 music dealers throughout the United States and in 47 countries. From 1938 to 1975, they were also a major supplier to another Chicago catalog company: Sears & Roebuck.

Among the many products they offered, DWC sold a wide range of musical instruments, including drums, percussion, brass, woodwinds, mandolins, banjos, ukuleles, and guitars, as well as all manner of accessories like picks, cases, and tuners. They also sold an assortment of musical novelties, such as piano-shaped cigarette boxes and musical liquor chests.

The instruments that DWC carried included both well-known brands, such as Harmony and Supro, and their own in-house brands, including Conrad guitars, Whitehall drums, and Wabash stringed instruments. The Wabash brand name was likely chosen because Wexler was located on South Wabash Avenue in Chicago.

Like other musical merchandisers of the period, such as Tonk Brothers, DWC didn’t actually build all the various instruments they sold, but rather contracted with various instrument manufacturers. For example, Conrad guitars were made in Japan by Matsumoku and Whitehall drums were made in America by Kent, and later, in Japan by Pearl. Given the unorthodox construction of the Wabash, I doubt that an actual instrument company made these ukes. I think it’s more likely that they were made by a novelty product company, perhaps the same one that made DWC’s piano-shaped cigarette boxes.

Based on information I garnered from Loretta Wexler, daughter-in-law of DWC founder David Wexler, Wabash produced and sold its rectangular-bodied ukes from some time in the late 1940s until the early 1950s. It’s unclear if DWC offered more than one version of this particular model; I’ve only ever seen one photo of another one, and that particular uke lacked the maple pickguard and fancy fingerboard extension of the instrument shown in this article.

In addition to the oddly constructed Wabash shown here, DWC did sell several other models of ukuleles with more conventional Spanish “figure of eight” bodies. These included two soprano models, a “professional” concert model, and a “challenge quality” baritone uke, as advertised in their 1953-1954 catalog.

David Wexler & Co. ceased operation as a music distributor in 1977 when the business changed direction and began representing various manufacturers of high-quality and unique products, assisting them with marketing, merchandising, and sales to various distributors. At that time, the company name was changed to Wexler Music Co. and was run by B.R. Wexler, son of David Wexler. In 1999, Wexler Music Co. moved from Chicago to Scottsdale, Arizona, where it is still in business today.