Hi Folks, Anyone have an opinion on the Koa Pili Koko vs Hawaiian Koa Ukes? I figure you can get a solid wood uke for $300 vs minmum $500 for the main HI Uke makers. Is the extra jump in price worth it in sound quality and craftsmanship? Thanks!
as of now it looks like MGM is the only seller and i think its hawaiin made and fairly new so no mainland exposure as of yet.
What size are you looking at? I just got a solid koa Kelii soprano from MGM and that was only 300 bucks. I'm digging it. (I also wrote out a whole review yesterday and then closed the wrong tab while looking up extra info. d'oh!)
Terrific review. Nice to read about wear issues and other small details that may or may not affect the joy of owning one.I...price.
...Perhaps if you go with a set of Worth strings you can postpone exchanging the nut. The Clear kind may sound nice and bright and perhaps it can give a little punch to that mellow sound.
I have a Tenor Koa Pili Koko from MGM. Overall, I've been 100% satisfied with it, but I'll try to nit-pick for the sake of a review.
Construction:
Body
The body is 100% solid acacia wood, as far as I can tell without tearing it apart. Looking inside the body, it has pretty normal bracing, and feeling inside with my finger I can tell it has fan-bracing for the bridge, not just a single plate. The linings are bent, not the kerfed type. There are also plenty of blue pen marks inside, suggesting that it was at least assembled by a human being.
Neck
I have no idea how the neck is attached, although the neck block inside the body would suggest that it's not a spanish style nece. I'd suspect there's a tenon joint, but I don't want to take off the fretboard to find out.
The neck is made of 1-piece mahogany, with a piece of acacia laminate on the headstock.
The neck has a flawless symmetry that would make me suspicious that it was CNC made. If it was hand-carved, whoever made it should take that as a compliment
Fretboard
The fretboard is made of rosewood. I have to say, I'm not entirely impressed with this. Although it looks really pretty, i find that it's a little softer than I'd like / expect. I'm personally used to playing the guitar, so admittedly i often find myself holding the ukulele with the kind of death grip that is required on medium gauge steel strings. I've found that after only playing the Koa Pili Koko for a month (ish), the more common frets are significantly marred up and worn down. I try to keep my fingernails on my left hand (and right hand, I just can't handle long nails) well trimmed, yet the frets still have countless gouges in them from the minute remnants of my fingernails. The fretboard is also coated with nitrocellulose lacquer (or so I believe), which is wearing off completely on all frets that are commonly played on. I've never had this amount of wear on any guitar i've played, even those with rosewood fingerboards.
That said, the frets are all quite perfect. There are no buzzes, except for when my would C string begins to wear out. The sides of the frets are all trimmed to a perfectly playable angle. As the sides of the fingerboard have the nitro sanded/filed off, I would suspect that the trimming of the frets was completed at a later stage, perhaps in Hawaii or maybe by MGM himself. In any event, they are done quite nicely. The fret marker inlays are sufficient, although they leave a little something to be desired. They might be MoP, might be synthetic....aren't really pretty enough to tell. There are 3, on the 5th, 7th, and 10th fret, as well as one side marker on the 7th fret.
Bridge, Saddle, Nut:
The bridge is made out of rosewood. It's a pretty contrast against the acacia soundboard. Nothing really special to tell about it, it serves it's purpose fine.
The saddle is also made of rosewood. This would seemingly be a problem for some people, although i personally don't mind. A bone saddle (or even brass, i guess) would seemingly transfer the vibration a little better, and make the uke have a little more bite. This could easily be changed, as mentioned before.
The nut is also made of rosewood. I personally don't like this so much. Much like the saddle, it could easily be changed out for a bone one, and likely should be (personal opinion). The nut is incredibly thin, and seemingly made out of the same wood as the fingerboard. In tuning the would C string (and would even be worse if you went low G), the winding on the string binds with the rosewood nut. This makes tuning only possible in significant jumps, which is incredibly annoying. So basically, to tune up the C string, I have to turn the machinehead slightly, and then press on the string between the nut and the tuner, in order to "pull" the string through the nut. This causes me additional worry, as this is undoubtedly wearing away at the rosewood, and cutting the slot in the nut deeper everytime I tune up. This will seemingly eventually lead to the action being too low on that string.
Finish, appearance:
Whatever this acacia wood is, it is incredibly pretty. I have never seen real Koa, except for in pictures, but this appears really similar. There is a considerable amount of curly figure in the wood. The entire ukulele appears to be finished with nitrocellulose lacquer, which makes a nice shine, and it incredibly durable. The finish is what, i believe, you'd call open-pore. That is, rather than a glass-like perfectly smooth finish, the pores of the wood are not filled, and so the lacquer doesn't build up evenly, but rather accentuates the pores of the wood. I think this type of finish really compliments the wood, although I'd like to see it with an oil finish.
The machineheads are geared, and I've had no troubles with them. The have zero slip (so far).
Overall, this thing is really well put together, and I wouldn't have any worries about it's durability.
Playability & Sound:
As far as playability goes, this is my first ukulele, so I don't have any real reference. I have, however, played guitar for years. This things sounds great! It has pretty good volume, and the sound is incredibly mellow. On mine in particular, I have however found it hard to get the A string to ring out. It seems considerably more dead than the other strings--not to the point that it sounds bad, just i find that I have to really come onto it hard when i'm playing to get the sound out of it.
The ukulele came with Hilo strings. After hearing all the hype about Aquila nylgut strings, I decided to try them on it. At first, i wasn't very pleased. The volume was significantly lower, to a point where I found myself playing them far too hard to try to get the same sound I was getting from the Hilos. After I got used to them, I did realize how lovely they sound, more mellow and melodic than the Hilos, but without the punch. I am planning on trying some different string brands on this, but as of right now, I'd say the Aquilas aren't really the best choice for this uke. The ukulele is very mellow sounding to start with, and adding Aquilas to that just seems to take away all it's punch. I think this is just a matter of opinion though, your mileage may vary.
Overall, I am pretty impressed with the sound. I think it has "enough" volume, and an absolutely beautiful tone. In the near future, I'll be looking into a bone saddle and nut though, in an effort to give it a little more "punch".
Conclusion:
For around $300, you can't go wrong. Buy one, you won't be disappointed. I know my review here was kind of hard on it, but like i stated at the start, i was just nit-picking. This is a well made, beautiful sounding instrument, at a great price.
another great review by eschelar
another? It says Posts: 1
g4ry's the one you quoted too!