A friend of my wife dropped off the pictured instrument, she said it was a Uke, formerly belonging to her late father which she had recently discovered in a closet. She does not play and asked if I would clean it up and see what I can do with it.
My wife, the actually talented musician in our family, was suspicious of the Uke claim and researched a bit. We believe it is a mandolinetto possibly from the early 1900's. There is no label or any identification marks on the instrument.
It cleaned up rather nice, holds it's tune and sounds nice. The little thing projects some sound!
The issues beyond normal wear that I found were a slight area where the back and sides have separated, one of the tuning knobs has been crudely replaced, one of the tuners, 1st G, is kind of funky and the neck appears to have a very slight twist.
Any thoughts of origin or notion of value is greatly appreciated!
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