Opio Tenor. You can't please everyone, so PLEASE just make a good instrument.

anthonyg

anthonyg

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Have they changed the way they make the Opio tenor recently? Does anyone know?

A couple of months ago or so someone was complaining about a dead note on an Opio tenor they bought and they ended up sending it back.

I had played an instrument from the same batch I guess and I LOVED it. It was such an expressive instrument even though there was a dead note but honestly, I didn't notice the dead note in real life playing and I had to go looking for it.

Anyway, my local music store just got another one so I played it today but I'm somewhat disappointed in this particular example. It just doesn't have the LIFE of the first one I played. The dead note is gone but so has all the instruments life.

Its just another mass market ukulele now. Nothing about it is worth much more than a Kala is worth.

Is this just variation from instrument to instrument or has KoAloha given in to silly complaints and changed something?

You can't please everyone so please just make the great instruments you know how to make. Some nubies may be happy now but you've just disappointed an experienced player.

Anthony
 
Do you know if the older one you played was made from sapelle? The new ones are made with Acacia and that is the only difference, design, bracing and execution is the same
. As you say it is most likely an instrument to instrument variation. I have played the same models of many makes and there is a variation in sound from one to the next. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Even with very expensive custom instruments
 
Along with the woods, which Dave mentioned, they also changed the finish, from a very flat and silky satin finish to some kind of semi-gloss. How was the finish on the first one you played, and now on that second one? I have one of their Sapele tenors, and ist awesome.
 
The old one was sapele and new is acasia, sapele is i believe relative to mohagany, correct me if im wrong. I think all acasia ukuleles sound terrible no matter what brand, but there spruce top opios are awesome. I felt the spruce top version trumps all of there previous sapele and acasai top models by alot.
 
What is a "dead note"? Do you mean a wolf tone, or something different? I ask because I've never seen this term used before on any stringed instrument forum, and was curious.

bratsche
 
anthonyg said:
Its just another mass market ukulele now. Nothing about it is worth much more than a Kala is worth.
Click to expand...

There are some great Kalas out there (and some not-so-great ones, but they cost what not-so-great ukuleles cost). But I give you credit for your marksmanship: taking down two brands with one shot. (That second sentence of mine is a joke.)

anthonyg said:
Is this just variation from instrument to instrument or has KoAloha given in to silly complaints and changed something?
Click to expand...
As someone else noted, you're probably right that it's a variation from instrument to instrument. But you seem to be making a huge generalization based on one instrument -- or two, if you include the other one you played.
 
I wish they would have stuck with sapele. To me those sounded almost as good as the Hawaiian made KoAlohas. It seems the acacia ones vary, but the sound sample on HMS sounded decent, but definitely not as good as the old sapele ones.
 
Thank guys. They looked very similar to me but the first one must have been Sapelle and the 2nd one Acacia.

The first one had an extraordinary sound which belied its modest (not cheap though) price. The one I played yesterday was OK but nothing extraordinary like the first one.

The "dead note" was about short sustain on D/D# notes. It was there but without looking for it I didn't notice it.

Yes Kala's are OK. My complaint was that the first one was an extraordinary instrument in a different league from Kala but the second one was a decent instrument but now in the same league as Kala.

Anthony
 
you should try there Koalana model. For that price insanely good. but they did have a defect on the first batch. not all but some of the book matched back wasn't glued on very well.
 
For the record...anyone unhappy with their Opio (or any other ukulele) could just send them to me. I would only keep a few and would pass the others on. :)

I have the Sapele Opio, and love it...so much that my goal is to buy a real KoAloha concert (tuned with High G unlike my Opio with Low G), and I think a KoAlana tenor to drag around with me in the winters. I have my Outdoor Tenor, which I also adore, but there are times I want something (unamplified) that is louder than that.

The only thing I would request from KoAloha versus any other instrument is a radius fretboard.

Sure, I will buy other ukuleles in the future and will eventually own a Kamaka amongst others. But the first ukulele I reach for is that Opio.
 
I had an Opio concert (sapele) and ended up giving it away. It was an okay instrument, very plain and after a while a little too brash for me, but not a bad ukulele. The factory setup wasn't the best. I think today you can get as good, if not better, instruments in the same price category. It does depend on the sound you want, though. I'd watch for dead notes around D/D# (duller sounding than the notes before and after those), though that happens with tenors of all makers sometimes, it's not specific to the Opio. Using a wound C can help.
 
I have the sapele soprano Opio. Recently changed the strings to Living Waters. Went from very nice to amazing.
 
I thought that it was a 'given' that even from the same maker, even factory ukes, from one specimen to another the instrument is likely to sound different from the next specimen?

Maybe it is an unfair statement to classify a whole model series as 'less than' from a small sample of ones that are not as resonant as others?

Having said that, consistency is also going to vary somewhat from hand-made instruments, even by the same craftsman, as humans are not CNC machines and millimeter tolerances are hard to maintain by hand, even with jigs and molds, and the difference of each build makes it unique, even 'special'.

Maybe some wisdom is that not all ukes are created equal, regardless of lineage or provenance?
 
Joe King said:
Maybe it is an unfair statement to classify a whole model series as 'less than' from a small sample of ones that are not as resonant as others?
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, in a previous thread about the Opio having less sustain in the D/#D area, there was a post by Andrew of HMS stating that many or all of the Opio tenors having that problem. I can't search for it right now for an exact quote. It did sound like the issue was common and not limited to the Opio series.

You're right that it is not optimal to generalize negatives, but the same really applies to recommendations also. It's rare enough that anything negative about the established brands is posted here at all. People are more forthcoming in private messages. We shouldn't discourage the few critical experiences that people do share with brands, builders or models. It's helpful to those who are looking for input before they spend their money.
 
Mivo said:
If I recall correctly, in a previous thread about the Opio having less sustain in the D/#D area, there was a post by Andrew of HMS stating that many or all of the Opio tenors having that problem. I can't search for it right now for an exact quote. It did sound like the issue was common and not limited to the Opio series.
Click to expand...

This is a large part of my impetuous for this thread. A slight lack of sustain on D/D# was in my view a small price to pay for an outstandingly responsive instrument. If this was the reason for the move away from Sapelle then I am very disappointed.

Experienced players deserve to have instruments made to suit their requirements as well. Not every instrument made has to be lowest common denominator.

Anthony
 
I actually don't get the correlation between dead notes and experienced players. An experienced player may be less bothered by it and better equipped to compensate, but why would you want dead notes? Is there any confirmation that they changed something to lower the frequency of dead notes at the expense of the sound? You may simply have test-driven a dud. Or differently put, can't you have decent sustain and volume without dead notes?
 
A nice loud, expressive ukulele is LIGHT and a light ukulele can suffer from some unwanted resonant frequencies that lead to less sustain on some notes. Because there is no mass in the top to keep vibrating the instrument responds quickly and the effect can be stark.

Instruments with less responsive tops tend to even things out so a single unwanted resonant frequency doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. No dead spots but no glory either.

Anthony
 
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