Famous Formby Ukes - Andy Eastwood on original GF ukulele-banjos 

Fantastic, great sounds , now l understand why people loved George he was inspirational!

All beautiful ukuleles:)

OH WOW!!!! My WONDERFUL friend, ANDY!

Very interesting story from the wonderful Andy Eastwood. Such an interesting and knowledgable guy to listen to. If you ever get the chance to see Mr Eastwood play live please do so, one of the best I’ve ever seen.

Thank you for preserving this artistic playing style and instrument!

Fantastic Andy! What a privilege! Interesting story about the Gibson and that Dallas E is absolutely beautiful!

youre the king man. such smooth playing.

Fantastic thanks!

Brilliant and thanks 👍👍👍

Wonderful short film Andy.

Andy great interesting video and has ever your one of the best ukulele player to date keep posting

Great video.

Pure pleasure, thanks

Really enjoyed that Andy - Totally engrossed, love the stories for the Uke's..Its not fair you can play that bloody good, jeez what Id give...Too good mate just too too flippn good - :-D

The UB3 is the only one I ever really pined for.My old group used to back Alan on his gigs quite a lot,and I thought it was the most "musical" uke banjo I had ever played,with both "body"and "presence"He used to have a job prising it out of my hands at the end of a gig!Incidentally he had two UB3s.He once turned up with the "other" at a gig I had got for him with us in Harrogate.Istarted to play it expecting it to be the one I was familiar with.I distinctly remember my exclamation to him."Bloody hell Alan, what have you done to it...it sounds Bad?" "Oh he replied. It is a different one"Uke banjos are temperamental things.It is all mostly down to the setting up.You can make a half decent one sound great....but ruin a gem by a bad set up.

I have a Dallas model E, number E 1141. I purchased it about 30 years ago from the widow of the gentleman who had been playing it for many years. He claimed that he had acquired it from George Formby when he was in the army, during the war. He brought it back here (to Canada) at the end of the war. I know that the story can never be verified, and I have been told that it's nonsense, as George was not in the habit of playing Dallas banjoleles, anyway. If he did get it from George Formby, I don't know how it could have happened, unless it had something to do with George entertaining the troops. True or not, I like to imagine that George's fingers have been on the same fretboard as my own fingers have.

I'd love to see you play in person, but being in Australia, it's not very likely. I really admire the way you play and sing, specially your smile, which was George's trademark. Thanks for your videos 😊

2:47 Do we know where that Abbott Monarch that Randall is holding there has gone? Making me relatively curious, saw that marking on the top. If I'm not mistaken, that's a sticker from the music shop it was most likely sold at; can't quite put my finger on the name, but I've seen that sticker on other Monarchs.

Love your videos. I just started playing Uke this year ( I'm actually a bass player) and it's been very fulfilling in a year where all my jobs just evaporated. I have a question about the banjo uke. I have a pretty nice Firefly tenor, and I imagine you can't put anything but nylon strings on it as it's a dowel bracing. Is there a banjo uke that uses steel strings to get that authentic GF sound? Thanks again, great stuff!!

Fascinating history, Andy, thank you. Oddly earlier this morning, I was watching Frank Randall on an episode of The Good Old Days. I had no idea he owned 2 of George's ukeleles. So how/when did you get yours if you don't mind me asking? I watched you playing it earlier on one of the GFS shows you did (2010 or 2013) or was it just on loan for the event? Anyway enjoyed watching so thank you.

So, was it more difficult to play in black and white than colour? :-)

how much would these ukes cost , not the ones george owned i mean pre war around £500? just wondering thanks great video!

:O I thought the other Gibson UB3 was in a museum somewhere, that's really cool to find out! Also, pretty cool to think your uke has a part off of one of George's other ukes, too. Did you confirm it was incorrect for both ukes, or did only one have serial numbers on the peghead and resonator due to being made at different times? Also, great solos as always! Hope to see you at one of the GFS meetings soon! :D

Hi Andy - I noticed the first one's price was £5.15s.6p. That's only £5.78p in today's currency. If you're selling it can I have first refusal? I won't haggle about the price even though it's had several previous owners.☺☺☺ Best wishes David.

Love the playing. Couldn’t help but think though, that to our ears this is quite an old sounding instrument, definitely has that 20s 30e tone, but I wonder how far back in time you’d have to go before someone thought you were playing loud obnoxious music like we might think of somethint like heavy metal.

what kind of strings are those?

There’s music and there are circus acts.