The ukelele you received in the mail is called the Islander, and was designed and produced by Mario Maccaferri somewhere in the 1950s. It is made entirely of plastic.

As usual, there's a story behind the gift, so here we go X^D

For the longest time I was wondering what I could give you this year. As you probably have noticed, I try to deduce what you would like from things that come up in our conversations and I try to find some sort of “theme” from your interests to link it to on the site. I guess this is what everyone does on some level, but I take care in doing it this way because I prefer to give meaningful and valueable gifts.

This year however, I didn't really come across anything. I did have one thought, but I kept dismissing it. However, as July 4th approached, I couldn't help but give it some thought again.

I know you would like an acoustic guitar again. I know you regret giving away the one you had. This was the thought that kept coming back to me... I would love to give you that acoustic guitar. It's a common interest of us. And I figured that if you had one, you could make some noise yourself... maybe drive the other noise away ;^) A readily available friend in the tougher moments. I'm gravitizing things, I know, but still. It can be very therapeutic. Plus, it would just be an awesome gift X^D

The reason I kept dismissing it was pretty simple. (Good) acoustic guitars can cost quite a bit, and I was afraid that this would pull things out of proportion. Besides that, I know you're not too materialistic. I guess I was also concerned about how your fellow housemates would react to such a “purchase”, possibly putting you in an awkward position. Lastly, there was the logistical matter of getting a dreadnought to your house X^D

The reason I stopped dismissing it was also pretty simple X^D I realized I make a fuckton of money. In fact, after paying back my parents there will be more than enough left for me to get a Line6 POD, an expensive but popular preamp amp modeler/effects box for my electric guitar. An acoustic for you, a POD for me... sounded pretty fair to me :^P

So I bit the bullet. After all, normal people are weird ;^) I got the idea to go to eBay to see if I could press the costs a bit, but I generally look there first anyways to see if there's anything I like which I then buy in an online store :^P

I browsed the acoustic guitar section to see what was available and quickly did find some interesting things. Most of the really cool things were in the 4 figure range of course, but one in particular caught my eye. It was a modified Dean, setup by Zager. A one of a kind, really, and the description was quite loving. I did some searching and found out that Dean's are pretty bitching, and that Dean would retire next year. So I did the crazy thing and bid on that auction.

I actually won that auction, but I failed to meet the reserve. I don't get reserves. Why not just put in the reserve as the minimum price? Anyways, the item was relisted immediately so the thing obviously was worth more, which made sense. While interesting, I went on to look at other items. I also realised I shouldn't do the crazy immediate bid again (although the Dean would've been a steal with my bid).

While scrolling through the guitars I slowly realised that what I was doing, while probably nice, was not a really good idea. A guitar should match the person playing it, and only that person can decide if it's a match. I found my match for a while with my electric (mostly due to price/prettyness X^D) but I can't really go and decide for you. You'd have to go to a few stores and try out a couple, maybe go back later, until you find one you are comfortable with. It's no use playing a guitar you're not comfortable with. To a degree, it's an extension of yourself.

So I guess I was stuck again. I kept browsing through the guitars while I realised this, and in the big list I came across this oddish looking one. After inspection it turned out to be a Sears Silvertone Folk Singer. And it was made entirely out of plastic. The description talked about Mario Maccaferri, and about how it was vintage and hard to find. It didn't seem too expensive either.

It was then that I remembered that you like vintage stuff. Granted, it wasn't from the Renaissance, but it was still pretty neat. It also wasn't that big and not that expensive. It would be a kinda neat collector's item, but still playable (albeit being a folk guitar). Best of both worlds, I'd say.

So then I went to do some research again. According to the item description, the Sears guitars were made by other companies and then rebranded, but the seller didn't know which company made this guitar. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to find anything on the Folk Singer, except for a few accounts of people stating they had a “plastic Sears guitar” about 25 years ago when they were young.

The item description also spoke of Mario Maccaferri though, so I went to look into him. While not a lot, more information was available about him. As I learned more and more about him, I realised that the seller was trying to make his item look better by talking about Mario Maccaferri in the item description, even though Maccaferri probably had nothing to do with the guitar at all. If anything, Sears sold this guitar 25 years after Maccaferri produced his plastic guitars, and I could not find any matching models. On top of that, it had wormgear tuners, which Maccaferri never used (they are relatively new).

It was still interesting, price-wise too, and obviously quite rare, but it was too non-descript. It would be nice to know something about it. That it has some history. Proof that it is actually a cool collectable. Something I could put up here on this site :^P

Then for the hell of it, I typed in “maccaferri” in eBay's search box, and lo and behold, there were actually results! One of them was an Islander ukelele, and I had read about that one. This was where things got interesting... it was also quite affordable and playable, and it did have a bunch of very interesting history behind it. On top of that, according to guitar collectors on the net it was quite the collectible to have. It was about 50 years old, getting into the more vintage vintage areas of history... and it came in the original box with the original booklets and all. My only concern was that it was in fact a plastic ukelele, and not an acoustic guitar X^D However, professionals state that it is a real ukelele, and I've heard recordings of it and it sounds pretty cute. It's still playable, it just won't take the place of the acoustic you'll one day get :^) But it might just bridge the gap X^D

I won that auction no problem by valueing the ukelele for what it was worth (suck that, bidsnipers! X^D), although near the end I got a bit nervous, of course. I always get into the details of what can go wrong (and sometimes, things do) but it all went smooth sailing. The seller mailed it out straight away, so that's why it arrived slightly early.

The history of Mario Maccaferri and therefore also of the Islander ukelele is given below. I had to omit a few details but all in all it's (in my opinion, haha) really awesome. This guy is the epitome of adaptability, and persistence, and success.

I hope I have succeeded in giving you a little piece of history, with possibly a second use. But moreso, I hope I have succeeded in giving you something that you like. Happy birthday, Laurie :^)

Mario Maccaferri was a luthier who was born in Cento on May 20th 1900. He was tutored by famous Italian luthier Luigi Mozzani and while becoming a luthier he also became an accomplished guitar player. In 1916 he entered the Accademia Musicale Chigiana Siena and in 1926 he graduated there, highest of the highest.

In 1923 he went on a tour through Europe as a guitar player and eventually he landed himself in London where he also moonlighted for a while as a teacher. Even though he had made guitar playing his career by now, his luthier skills were itching so he designed a few guitar prototypes in his spare time and showed them to Ben and Lew Davis in 1929, the managers of the London branch of Selmer. They directed him to Henri Selmer himself, who was very impressed and hired him, having him move to Mante la Ville where he set up a factory. Here they would produce the Maccaferri Guitars by Selmer of Paris.

While working for Selmer, Maccaferri designed the guitar he is most known for, the Modèle Jazz. There were two versions, the Grand Bouche with a large “D” shaped hole, and later the Petite Bouche with a small oval hole. This last version is the iconic guitar that Django Reinhardt played his entire life. In honour of this, the Modèle Jazz was later renamed to the Modèle Django Reinhardt. Less than a thousand of these guitars have been produced.

After only 3 years of working for Selmer, Maccaferri quit his job in 1933 after a contract dispute. Selmer would go on with producing the guitars, but Maccaferri wanted to go back to playing the guitar. Very unfortunately, he injured his right hand during a swimming accident that summer, and he could never play again.

Fortunately, he had learned how to make saxophone/clarinet reeds during his time at Selmer, and he set up his own business, the French-American Reed Manufacturing Company. This company got a New York office in 1938, and in 1939 he himself moved to the States to escape the impending war.

His escape was very narrow: in order to get on the last boat to leave France, he had to rent a limo and tip the chauffeur to salute him, so that he could get past the line and the guards in front of the ferry building. While inside, he offered $10000, all he had on him, to “get me on that goddamned boat”. His account is detailed here.

It was there, during the New York World's Fair of 1939, that he came across a new material called “plastic”. During the war, the cane supply of which reeds are made had dried up severely, and Maccaferri's business was in danger. He succeeded in creating the world's first plastic reed and was awarded the patent in 1941. This reed was endorsed by several famous blowers including Benny Goodman.

But that was not all. His plastic reed experiences enabled him to expand into producing a plethora of plastic injection-molded products. Most notably, he invented the plastic clothespin. The people were in dire need of these products because the original variants were unavailable due to the war.

This went on for a while, but in 1949 the luthier in him cropped up again when Arthur Godfrey told him that if he could make a $2 ukelele, he would sell a million of them. He combined his knowledge of guitarmaking and plastics to produce a prototype for a plastic ukelele. It was deemed a viable musical instrument, and Maccaferri started producing the Islander ukelele. Competitively priced during the Hawaiian music fad, and endorsed by Arthur Godfrey, this ukelele was a massive success and sold 1 million units in the first year alone, and 9 million units in total between 1949 and 1969. He even made a device called the ChordMaster, which was strapped onto the neck of the ukelele and had simple buttons you could press to have it fret the chords for you.

Besides the Islander, Maccaferri produced a few other plastic ukeleles during the 1949-1969 period. These were the TV Pal, the Playtune, and various other novelty ukeleles, as well as different versions (such as deluxe or baritone) and colorings. Possibly related, a toy company called Emenee (M&E) created many plastic instruments. It is unknown if the M in M&E was Maccaferri or not. Most of these can be seen here.

While the Islander was considered as good as (or possible even better than) any ukelele, it was marketed and percieved as a “toy” product for people to partake in the Hawaiian fad. Maccaferri however was a luthier, and he took the next step: in 1953 he created two plastic guitar prototypes. Unlike the Islander, they were meant to be serious guitars, competitive to original wooden acoustic guitars. Maccaferri believed that plastic was not inferior to wood when it came to making guitars, and he set out to prove this. He stated that plastic guitars were actually better, because they do not deform under heat or moisture like wooden guitars do. Maccaferri put these guitars into production quickly, as the G30 and the G40. The G30 was a flattop, and the G40 was an archtop.

Maccaferri enhanced his lineup of plastic guitars with many types, versions, and colorings. The lineup as of 1969 consisted of the G30, the G40, the G16 (also known as the Islander Guitar), the Romancer, the Showtime, a few Beatles-themed guitars, and many other (novelty) guitars. The lineup also gained a number of plastic electric guitars. The exact lineup can be found in this article.

Maccaferri produced many of these guitars, but the market didn't want any of it and they failed as a commercial product. Sales were slow due the fact that they were made of plastic which made many players predujiced against them, because plastic guitars were percieved as toys. Despite the lack of interest, Maccaferri continued producing the guitars unabated, riding on the success (and profits) of the Islander ukeleles. He never stopped believing they were good instruments, and professional acoustic guitar players have stated and still state that the guitars are in fact real musical instruments with their own distinctive sound.

In 1967, Maccaferri suffered from a heart attack. After his recovery, the plastics denounciation near the end of the sixties (partly thanks to the The Graduate) caused bad reviews for his guitars. He decided to take it a little easier and in 1969 he stepped out of the guitar business. He sold off his plastic guitar production equipment to Carnival Industries, who never continued his legacy.

After 1969, Maccaferri focused on his plastics business, moving into plastic housings for 8-track tapes and later for cassettes.

In 1981, he put an end to his plastics business after the city of New York wanted his building. He was 80, and done with plastics. His wife Maria took over the reed-making equipment and the French-American Reeds Manufacturing Company name at the last minute, and the rest of his factory was auctioned off. Maria continued the reeds business, which still exists, and is now run by their daughter Eliane.

During his retirement, Maccaferri still did what he always did. He went to his shop at 7:30, and worked there on various projects. Most notable are the folding acoustic guitar that reduces to a package no larger than a shoebox without detuning, and the plastic violin. He made a prototype for the violin and debuted it at Carnage Hall in 1990. There were about 300 made.

Unfortunately, violin players didn't like the violin, but several chemical companies applauded Maccaferri for his pioneering work. Recently, others have continued his work by using carbon fibre for the housing instead of plastic.

Mario Maccaferri died on April 16th 1993, at the age of 92. The plastic violin was played at his funeral.