I thought it might be rare...

Swamp Yankee

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Back in February I bought a Kiwaya KTS-4K here on the marketplace. When I couldn't find anything at all about a KTS-4 made in solid koa, I sent an email off to Takumi to see if they had any information about it.

I gave up on hearing back, but they sent me an email today. It turns out it was one of only three. It was made in Jan. 2010 for a special order placed by Vintage Instruments in PA.

Cool! :cool:
 
That's a great piece of info on your uke! Should make playing it even more enjoyable.
 
Hi, Yankee! I always enjoy your posts about Kiwaya. I've found a catalog about Kiwaya ukulele. Since this catalog is located deep in Japanese web site, you may have not known it before. KTS-4 (w/o k) is listed in Japanese Artist Series in there. It is made by African mahogany. As they use k for Hawaiian koa, k in KTS-4k may mean Hawaiian koa.

https://gigaplus.makeshop.jp/kiwaya/19/img/content/English_KIWAYA_catalog.pdf
 
The English in that catalog makes me cringe. Why do people feel like they can get away with hiring cheap translators?
 
Hi, Yankee! I always enjoy your posts about Kiwaya. I've found a catalog about Kiwaya ukulele. Since this catalog is located deep in Japanese web site, you may have not known it before. KTS-4 (w/o k) is listed in Japanese Artist Series in there. It is made by African mahogany. As they use k for Hawaiian koa, k in KTS-4k may mean Hawaiian koa.

https://gigaplus.makeshop.jp/kiwaya/19/img/content/English_KIWAYA_catalog.pdf

Thank you for the link! We have plenty of KTS-4 ukuleles made from African mahogany here in the US, I have one myself. But according to Kiwaya, my KTS-4K is one of only three of that model that was made in koa.
 
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