I suspect I am doing the NUD thing a bit wrong, as this kind of spiraled out a bit into a full blown review.
Last week, Mim had some blem stock Pineapple Sundays pop up, and I couldn't resist. It arrived over the weekend, but I needed some time with it before I wrote anything up...
Here is my beautiful Pineapple Sunday, made by "Pops" KoAloha himself, Alvin Okami!
It is technically a "blem" because there is a small dent on the backside where the back meets the side. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I didn't know it was there from the listing on Mim's site.
It is a solid koa body, with two book-matched pieces used for the top and back. As has been discussed in another thread, KoAloha is constantly making tweaks and changes to their instruments, and Pops is no exception to this. The Pineapple Sunday, being Pops' passion project, is constantly being refined, so no two batches of Pineapple Sundays are exactly the same. The "current" batch (as of June 2019) of koa instruments appear to have the re-designed spiky pineapple headstock and pineapple logo, so I suspect that this one, with its crown headstock and traditional KoAloha logo, is from a batch from late 2018 or early 2019. Unfortunately, there is no date or serial number inside, so it is hard to pin down exactly. This transient nature and lack of date leads to some details being... tricky.
The listing claimed a rosewood fretboard and bridge, but these look way too dark for that. I suspect it is ebony. Here is the Pineapple Sunday next to my Kamaka HF-2 anniversary edition, which *definitely* has a rosewood fretboard for comparison. The position markers are also a bit of a curiosity as well.
The listing labels them as mango, but user efiscella describes the ones he had, of the same look and design, as curly maple. I can't tell for sure what the wood here is, but they look great! The pictures simply don't do them justice. (I do plan to write to KoAloha to see if they can clear up the material questions I have.)
So, what's it like? In one word: exquisite. This instrument is extremely well made. It feels more like it was crafted rather than built. Yes, I know that is a bit of a fine distinction, but there is just something special about it. It feels very solid, with a nice heft and weight, but a delicateness that tells you it isn't overbuilt. The sound has a clarity to it that is unmatched in anything I have played. Every note is clear and balanced, with good sustain. It is a bit quieter than I had expected from a KoAloha, but that is not the same thing as saying it is quiet. There is still plenty of volume here.
There is one oddity of the sound that bears mention. The instrument exhibits a fairly strong directional component to the sound. This is something that I first noticed on my Blackbird Clara; the instrument sounds very different when you are playing vs. when you are simply listening to it being played by someone else. In the case of the Clara, when playing it the instrument sounds very "boomy" to my ears, with the low end exaggerated and the treble side muted. When you listen to a Clara when not playing it, it is quite balanced and lovely. The Pineapple Sunday seems to exhibit a reverse-Clara effect. When you play it, the low end seems to be somewhat lost and the sound, overall, seems a bit thinner than I had expected. It isn't all that noticeable if you play just the Pineapple Sunday, but if you play it back-to-back with something else (like say, a Kamaka HF-2) I feel it seems thin. If you instead listen to the instrument being played by someone else, the low end is back, and the sound is much more balanced. I may try to capture this with a pair of microphones with one in front of the instrument and one near my shoulder.
Last week, Mim had some blem stock Pineapple Sundays pop up, and I couldn't resist. It arrived over the weekend, but I needed some time with it before I wrote anything up...
Here is my beautiful Pineapple Sunday, made by "Pops" KoAloha himself, Alvin Okami!
It is technically a "blem" because there is a small dent on the backside where the back meets the side. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I didn't know it was there from the listing on Mim's site.
It is a solid koa body, with two book-matched pieces used for the top and back. As has been discussed in another thread, KoAloha is constantly making tweaks and changes to their instruments, and Pops is no exception to this. The Pineapple Sunday, being Pops' passion project, is constantly being refined, so no two batches of Pineapple Sundays are exactly the same. The "current" batch (as of June 2019) of koa instruments appear to have the re-designed spiky pineapple headstock and pineapple logo, so I suspect that this one, with its crown headstock and traditional KoAloha logo, is from a batch from late 2018 or early 2019. Unfortunately, there is no date or serial number inside, so it is hard to pin down exactly. This transient nature and lack of date leads to some details being... tricky.
The listing claimed a rosewood fretboard and bridge, but these look way too dark for that. I suspect it is ebony. Here is the Pineapple Sunday next to my Kamaka HF-2 anniversary edition, which *definitely* has a rosewood fretboard for comparison. The position markers are also a bit of a curiosity as well.
The listing labels them as mango, but user efiscella describes the ones he had, of the same look and design, as curly maple. I can't tell for sure what the wood here is, but they look great! The pictures simply don't do them justice. (I do plan to write to KoAloha to see if they can clear up the material questions I have.)
So, what's it like? In one word: exquisite. This instrument is extremely well made. It feels more like it was crafted rather than built. Yes, I know that is a bit of a fine distinction, but there is just something special about it. It feels very solid, with a nice heft and weight, but a delicateness that tells you it isn't overbuilt. The sound has a clarity to it that is unmatched in anything I have played. Every note is clear and balanced, with good sustain. It is a bit quieter than I had expected from a KoAloha, but that is not the same thing as saying it is quiet. There is still plenty of volume here.
There is one oddity of the sound that bears mention. The instrument exhibits a fairly strong directional component to the sound. This is something that I first noticed on my Blackbird Clara; the instrument sounds very different when you are playing vs. when you are simply listening to it being played by someone else. In the case of the Clara, when playing it the instrument sounds very "boomy" to my ears, with the low end exaggerated and the treble side muted. When you listen to a Clara when not playing it, it is quite balanced and lovely. The Pineapple Sunday seems to exhibit a reverse-Clara effect. When you play it, the low end seems to be somewhat lost and the sound, overall, seems a bit thinner than I had expected. It isn't all that noticeable if you play just the Pineapple Sunday, but if you play it back-to-back with something else (like say, a Kamaka HF-2) I feel it seems thin. If you instead listen to the instrument being played by someone else, the low end is back, and the sound is much more balanced. I may try to capture this with a pair of microphones with one in front of the instrument and one near my shoulder.
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