What is a "Novelty" Ukulele?

Ukulele magazine had a recent article on ukulele collecting ("Collecting Compulsion," Summer 2020) that was par for the course for the magazine: well-written and informative, with some nice illustrations.  It focuses on three collectors and overall gives a good run-down on different sorts of collections and the motivations behind them.

Somebody's ukulele collection I had the
privilege of adding to.  It's that odd one there.

Just one thing in the article really caught my attention as related to the subject of my blog--alternative types of ukuleles, i.e., ukuleles that do not look miniature guitars. This was a reference to "novelty" ukuleles.

The article gives passing attention to a theme of mine, the fact that the ukulele exhibits a fair degree of variation in its forms, referring to "the diversity of this instrument that continues to charm."

The thing that caught my attention was how one of the collectors featured in the article, Andy Roth of San Fransisco, described the focus of his collecting: "Mainland makers who made fine instruments, not toys or novelty instruments."

Now this could be taken as a completely neutral statement, as if collecting "toys or novelty instruments" would be just a different focus, not an inferior choice, but I can't help seeing something of an invidious distinction here between "fine instruments" and non-fine ones.

I have to say the distinction is justified if we're talking  about the simple distinction between an instrument that is well-made and sounds good and one that isn't and doesn't.  Still, I don't see that a "novelty" instrument necessarily means the same thing as an inferior instrument, and the line between "novelty" and simply non-standard (but nevertheless "fine") is not so simple to delineate.

The Aeoro Uke: Pilot's License Not Required

Something like the "Aero Uke" of the 1920s is surely a "novelty" instrument, in about the same sense that the pop song "Monster Mash" of 1962 is a novelty song--it's a comedy item, or least deliberately offbeat in a direction likely to elicit a smile.

And I think it's fair to say that a type of ukulele I make, the "Michi-lele," is a novelty type instrument,  but I do not just make these Michi-leles

The Michi-lele--Complete with 2 Peninsulas

to be hung  on the wall and laughed at, or shown off by proud Michiganders as a tribute to our great state.  This ukulele is meant to be played, and to sound sweet, and to be a good-looking piece of woodworking too. I guess I will let better musicians than myself judge if the sound  quality is "fine," but that is something I strive for, in any case.

The Pineapple: A Novelty Then, a Classic Now

Also let's consider the venerable and famous Pineapple ukulele by Kamaka, a type that has since the 1920s become almost a secondary standard type of ukulele type--presumably because it is pleasing to look at and produces a fine sound.  I have no doubt that many folks at the time the Pineapple first came out considered it a novelty instrument, a stunt, a bid to make sales based on its new and different look.

In a very real sense, the ukulele itself can be considered a novelty instrument.  It certainly has been considered that in the past, and  this is a defining part of the history of the ukulele--its perception as a non-serious, "fun" instrument (or even just a toy).  As I have mentioned elsewhere, it is this aspect of the ukulele that has helped make it particularly susceptible to "novelty" forms--alternative forms.

Why they named it "Shrine,"
I have no idea,  but it's
mighty cute!

And how about this little beauty?  It's a so-called Shrine ukulele put out by Lyon and Healy circa 1927.  Is it a novelty ukulele or something else? Again, it was perhaps considered a novelty type when first introduced, but by now I believe many consider it a sort of rare classic type.

The overall point is, "novelty" is close to the beating heart of the entire ukulele phenomenon as we know it, and that's a good thing.

For good or for ill, a respectable symphonic instrument like the violin, and even the acoustic guitar to a great degree, are instruments whose shape is virtually set in stone by rigid design and craft traditions.  There are reasons why people hold fast to those traditions, but I for one am glad to be as free from them as I want to be as ukulele maker, and still have some prospect of my work being looked at favorably in the ukulele world. 

And I do believe the worlds of the other instruments would be enriched by some of the spirit of freedom and "fun" that the ukulele brings with it wherever it goes.