Curly, Quilty Koa Tenor Ukulele
Here’s a new Curly, Quilty Koa Tenor Ukulele. The body is old growth, salvage Koa from the Big Island and the accent Koa is from Kauai. I think this is proof that you don’t need the perfect, high curl Koa to make a distinctive looking instrument. This set is not perfectly quarter sawn and the result is some pretty bizarre figuring. Some of the figure appears as “bubbles” (I don’t know what else to call the look). It seems that there are some pretty distinct differences in Koa sourced from the various islands of Hawaii. This Koa looked like it might be difficult to work, but I found that it bent easily enough, and the density seemed to be about average. I have found Koa from Kauai to be more dense and more difficult to work although the visual appeals can be pretty exceptional.
This build is pretty straight forward with a curly Oregon Myrtle back strip, white/black Maple purfling and India Rosewood for binding. The neck is Honduran Mahogany with internal “passive” carbon fiber truss bar and the fret board and bridge are African Ebony species.
I had the opportunity to have a client drop by a couple of weeks ago for an sound comparison test of several new instruments that I had on hand and was very pleased to hear this instrument as one of our favorites: good volume and sustain with full base notes and clear trebles. Curly, Quilty, Bubbles and too! This instrument is now available from Hale Ukulele in San Diego.