NEW PONOS for Namm have arrived

The new revamped line of Ponos now made in a new factory trained by John and Noa of Koolau have arrived for the Namm show and I have a sneak edition of all the new models and all i can say is WOW!. John has re=speced all the ukes design..lightened up the bodies and with this new factory's highly skilled luthiers is now producing all handmade...yes even the neck shapes and dovetails connect the necks are all done by hand has improved build quality and most importantly tone and volume. My hats off to you John for listening to his feedback and adjusting his new line. Will slowly get You tubes of each model soon..

If MGM is excited, I think we all should be. Can't wait to hear the samples of each uke.

Sweet! Can't wait to see them.

Sounds awesome. Cant wait to see a vid!!

heres the mohogany soprano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FPtMDtDgMY

Love that rope rosette! Nice sounding uke

Will they have their own booth at NAMM, or will their ukuleles be shown in another booth?

–Lori

The flamed maple tenors look gorgeous. I cannot wait to see the rosewood as well.

some of them cost more than an actual koolau

Glad to hear they're a significant improvement over the last batch of Ponos.

Wouldn't worry much about the pricing; those are just the list prices on Ko'olau's website. I'm pretty sure that the actual prices will be reasonable: somewhere between Mainland and the K-brands.

haole said:

Wouldn't worry much about the pricing; those are just the list prices on Ko'olau's website. I'm pretty sure that the actual prices will be reasonable: somewhere between Mainland and the K-brands.

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according to mgm's second video it says its 999.00 for the maple or spruce one...cant remember which of the two

heres a deluxe mahogany gloss tenor...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CB3TFmkHG4


actually they are not as much as Koolaus If you bought a Koolau with the same specs as their MPTSH-5 you would be looking at 3,000.00

MGM said:

actually they are not as much as Koolaus If you bought a Koolau with the same specs as their MPTSH-5 you would be looking at 3,000.00

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That is true. The Ponos offer a lot of value. The slotted headstock, nicely silked spruce top, flame maple back/sides, and abalone inlays are high end features. And when you bring that $1000 MSRP pono back down to street prices, my guess is that it's probably going to run you around $850. And I'm assuming that includes their very nice $80 hard case. So for what you're getting, the price is competitive. And spruce and flame maple is SEXY. Ask NukeDoc, he's got a Taylor with that configuration.

John called and corrected me That made by Ko'olau would be 4200 plus slot headstock upgrade...lol

MGM said:

John called and corrected me That made by Ko'olau would be 4200 plus slot headstock upgrade...lol

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Man, IMO, $4200, even if that isn't the street price (and I hope John was talking MSRP) is very overpriced for a uke like that. I mean, Ko'olaus do tend to be more expensive than the competition, but I don't really see what value they add for that price. You can get a Taylor 600 CE series guitar with similar specs for about $2900, street, (incl. hard case and awesome electronics). And with that you're also buying an amazing guitar and getting into a lifetime subscription to their Wood and Steel mag and excellent customer service. (Not saying anything about Ko'olau's CS, since I've never dealt with them personally...though I will say that I have heard stories from a VERY prominent member of the UU community.)

But do Ko'olaus really add that much more value than the other K-brands? While nobody makes anything out of the box exactly like that Spruce/Flame Maple Ko'olau, you can definitely get something like that custom made. And I hate to keep pimping KoAloha, but they're the only big K brand with publicly advertised custom pricing (Kanilea used to have it, but I can't seem to find it anymore.)

Specing out a KoAloha custom with the same options as the aforementioned Ko'olau, you're probably looking at paying around $2500. No slotted headstock, just like the $4200 estimate by John. Of course, you'll have to wait in line for your KoAloha since Paul is hella backed up. But for that lower price, and the wait, you get value added via KoAloha's amazing customer service, which I can personally attest to.

http://www.koaloha.com/Custom_Works/CustomWorks_Options.html

But then again, everyone has their own perceptions of value, so it's impossible to say what is overpriced to me is overpriced to other people.

And my opinion also doesn't count because I've never played a Ko'olau of that price range. They could be the most amazing ukes in the world for all I know. But as of right now, Ko'olaus just seem a bit overpriced to me, so the contrast to illustrate the relative bargain of the Pono seems exaggerated.

I would love to play the new instruments. The last line had a great fit and finish, but the instruments did sound a bit muted.

someone wanted to hear the new ponos with different strings here is a MT satin tenor with aquila all plain strings
http://www.youtube.com/user/musicguymic#p/a/u/0/X8pveob_9qo

hmm, the body of the soprano is bigger than before.

One thing I see from the picture is the bridge seems to be in a nice position on the soundboard (not pushed all the way down at the bottom). When they went to long scale with the small body, the bridge got moved down. I have to think that helps the tone.

Considering the hard case and MGM's free shipping, the price is in Mainland territory.

I am kind of interested in the mahogany deluxe, which will have an ebony fingerboard. To get that in a Ko'olau is $1250 or so.

It is a good thing when a manufacturer rewatches his models and keeps on track with continuous improvement. But on the other hand -I dunno- Koolau reminds me of certain software publishers: "Gothic I and II where buggy, buy the new one! This time it´s for real!"

I definetely want to testdrive the new models. But of course I bought Gothic III too!