New Koa Tenor Ukulele with New Koa
At last, some new koa added to my stock. Here’s a New Koa Tenor Ukulele with New Koa delivered to Hale Ukulele in San Diego last week. What I like about this new koa is the variety of grain pattern and the colors that each set provides.
I’m sure that all the Koa in this instrument came from the same tree and possibly from the same billet of wood but each side of the instrument shows a different and interesting look. This is why, in my opinion, it is not a necessity to have perfect curl. The overall beauty of the wood comes from the combination of color, cut and curl. I can’t get bored here. This is just too much fun!
I’m experimenting with the new purfling colors that I have in stock now too. I used the Teal Blue/black purfling here for the first time.
I also faced the Paua Abalone with the Teal instead of black which gives a more light blue/translucency to the abalone. Definitely a different appearance but one that goes with this color of wood very well. This made a hit with my wood supplier because Teal is her favorite color.
The neck is Honduran Mahogany, the binding is India Rosewood and the Accent wood is Vanuatu Maidou Burl. The fret board and bridge are Macassar Ebony and the tuners are my go to Gotoh planetary. For that nahenahe sound I used GHS flourocarbon strings with Sarah Maisel’s low “G” flourocarbon. For more punch, I think I would switch the low “G” to a brass wound string and for more brightness I’m temporarily favoring D’Addario Nytech with brass wound low “G”.
I have more sets of this particular koa so another New Koa Tenor Ukulele with New Koa might be in the works soon. Oh, I almost forgot! It sounds good too!