Looking for a Kamoa Evolve Steel-string semi-hollow body electric uke.

harpo808

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Hey everyone,

I had the great opportunity to try out one of the Kamoa Evolve ukes at the Hawaiian store in Japantown in San Francisco last year. It blew me away and I've been dreaming of it ever since. I got a Vorson Tele-style steel string as a low budget alternative just to make sure I wanted a steel string, and the results have been great.

That said, the tone and build-quality of the Kamoa was way better, so I'm in the market for a used one (since Kamoa stopped making them a few years ago).

Does anyone have a Kamoa evolve (tenor or concert) that they are willing to sell, price negotiable?

I'd also be willing to discuss other steel-string ukes of comparable quality.
 
About 3 years ago I spearheaded a UU group-buy of the uke you're talking about directly from the Chinese manufacturer. Kamoa was a distributor of that uke in the US, they didn't even design it, and the Chinese manufacturer will put any label on the headstock. There were 22 of us in the buy and the manufacturer built all of them to our order. At that time the bridge and tailpiece (some had that) were actually for a 6 string guitar, some had the bridge misplaced, some the grounding on the pickups were off, plus the colors were not as shown online. I changed out my tailpiece to a 4 string, but sold mine shortly after because I found I had no occasion to use a steel string.

I loved the look of it, which originally prompted me, plus when I first contacted them, they told me a single one would be $400, but if I ordered 20, each would be $165. A number of us sold them because they either didn't meet our expectations, or they just sat unused. I think a couple of people might still have them for sale, hopefully they will chime in here.

Original listing above, what I received below.

archtop dual side.jpg

1 ES Mine.jpg
 
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I was part of the group buy that Mike organised. Its fair to say we got the same/similar body to the Kamoa but the Kamoa had better specified hardware. I didn't play mine for a while but after a little work, (I set the bridge floating so that it could be positioned properly and had a shim made to sit beside the nut to correct the open position intonation) I started playing it and using it as my busking instrument and it sounds great. I may replace more of the hardware yet but for the money I'm not complaining.

Anthony
 
Thanks for the info, Mike. Hopefully some of those folks would consider selling because I just love that sustain you get with steel strings. Out of curiosity, what kind of tailpiece did you get (was it for a mandolin, or something)? I might as well spec out some replacement parts if I'm likely to have to make some mods.
 
...what kind of tailpiece did you get (was it for a mandolin, or something)? I might as well spec out some replacement parts if I'm likely to have to make some mods.

I went to eBay and looked up a 4 string trapeze tailpiece and chose a short one.
 
Mine is styled after after the Gibson es330. pictured with my '62 Es330.
I think mine was the only double cutaway in the order.

I changed out the tailpiece to the proper one and had it professionally setup by my luthier. He moved the bridge by plugging the holes and redrilling holes in the proper location for spot on intonation. Also leveled and polished the frets. Neck is straight and all in all, is a great little electric uke. He said the pickups are adequate but upgrading them would turn the instrument into something fantastic. Also came with a hard shell checkered case.

I will be selling it as I don't play it and am thinning the collection I won't be home for approx three weeks so can't provide more photos and will put up a prope post then.
 

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