Kou Wood

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Patchenu

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All,
I was looking at some alternative Hawaiian woods for a custom build and while I've seen and heard ukuleles with Milo, Ash and others, I hadn't really heard of a ukulele that used Kou Wood. I saw on Instragram that Ko'olou is building an ukulele using Kou wood and I did a search here to find out more but I didn't find anything. I also searched google and I found one sound sample of an ukulele that was an Ono concert 16" from HMS. Does anyone own a Kou wood ukulele? The wood looks amazing but I would like some references to the sound if I can get some.

Thanks in advance.
 
While this vid is more for the builders, it is using Kou as an example. Just so happens, the guy holding the camera built one with a set. And I have a bunch drying at KoAloha that I need to pickup someday . . .

Personally, I wouldn't consider Kou, Milo (and Kamani) an "alternative" Hawaiian wood. They hold more value to me than Koa, and I try to save those set for, well, builds that are not "everyday".
 
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Kekani, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it a light wood. Less dense than Koa or mahogany?
 
Isn't kou softer but yet more durable flexible a characteristic they have? And a evergreen species used more in the
Past for other projects than ukuleles?
 
saltytri said:
Here's what kou looks like:

http://www.theukulelesite.com/ono-custom-spruce-kou-16-scale-concert.html
Click to expand...

If that didn't have the Kou description I'd have sworn that the back/sides were made of walnut. I use walnut a lot and have seen pieces that appear extremely similar to that, colour, grain, even the figure.
European and lighter weight American black walnuts can be a shoe in for Koa - the density range is very similar, in fact it can be exactly the same. Don't know about this kou, I can't find any timber properties for it, it's not even listed on the Wood Database website.
 
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