In our relentless pursuit of strange and unusual tone for cigar box guitars and other instruments, we were floored when we tripped over this little piece of history:  The Echo Uke featuring the Ukulele Echo Device from the 1920's.

"Echo Uke" was a brand name of the Hawaiian Mahogany Company, a Honolulu ukulele manufacturer in the 1920s. Their ukuleles were sold in Hawaii as well as distributed on the mainland. Jules M. Sahlein of San Francisco sold Echo Ukes under the Y'Ke'Ke brand name and Schireson Brothers of Los Angeles sold them under the Mai Kai brand.

Some Echo Ukes include a special device apparently intended to add to the instrument's tone. This "Echo Device" was one or two strips of thin metal attached to the inside of the top of ukulele directly opposite to where the bridge is mounted.
Note: This is the same philosophy used by Ozark guitar builder, Ed Stilley when he placed springs and metal objects inside the guitar bodies.  See our article about Stilley here for more info.

The photograph above shows the echo device on a piece of the top from a badly damaged Y'Ke'Ke Echo Uke. The top and bottom photographs on the right are from a concert-sized Echo Uke and a soprano "Pele" model Echo Uke. These photos were taken by laying a small mirror inside of the ukuleles and catching the echo device's reflection through the ukulele's soundhole.

The labels of some Echo Ukes contain the claim "Echo Device Patented" but they list no patent number. Searches at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have yet to locate the patent.


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Cool! Hmmm,,,,, that gives me an idea. I'll get work and see if the idea works.

Darn it, I just glued a box closed...

Now where to find some thin spring steel...

If you have an old leaf rake the tines might just do the trick.

I love this idea. Visions of using a bit of those old "curb feelers" that I used to see on cars sprang to mind.

Check the roads for street sweeper tines, find them all the time around here. they are good spring steel, work great for kalimbas too. A lot thinner than rake tines.

Wonder if strips of old large gauge wound(low E) guitar strings would work?

This doesn't work.

Thanks for the update!

https://youtu.be/TJehKrhYyBE

Here's what I was thinking about trying. I think it just might work!

I'll post it on the main page soon.

Hi, whilst restoring an old Windsor zither banjo recently I came across this showing an astounding array of springs, well worth a look.

http://brightonbanjos.com/windsor-zither-banjo-repair/

I'm currently starting out on my first build and got suckered into going for a 3 or 4 string oil can version, piezo driven, and wonder if some coiled springage inside might be worth checking out on my second try.

Springs will work for a natural reverb effect, but I think they give a different effect than the metal strips will. Like a slower speed warble effect similar to a WahWah pedal while the springs give a higher speed reverb style echo.

At least this is my thinking on it. I could be wrong.

I gave a close listen to the demo from another posting on this and could easily tell that springs made a way noticeable change in the dynamics. I will be starting my first project this year and would ask: should the spring(s) be so mounted as to have an open end and the (attached to the frame end) at the bottom of the sound board? I'm thinking I want to try this.

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