Cordoba Koa Ukes: 25CK Concert or 25TK Tenor ... Yes? No? Forget-About It??
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psesinkclee
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I own a 25CK. I love this uke, all solid koa, although its been debated that its more of 'european koa' or an acacia, but that doesn't bother me because it sounds great. I installed a pickup on mine and its awesome. Check out my youtube, there are a few videos there of me using it. 
Lanark
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I'd suggest maybe a site search on them.
As I remember the instruments themselves have a reputation to be somewhat inconsistently built. So they can be kind of hit or miss with some really nice ones and some real dogs popping up. If you can check it out in person and like it, they might not be a bad deal, but otherwise I might suggest looking at the usual reliable sources for your UAS. (ie. Mainland, MGM etc...)
As I remember the instruments themselves have a reputation to be somewhat inconsistently built. So they can be kind of hit or miss with some really nice ones and some real dogs popping up. If you can check it out in person and like it, they might not be a bad deal, but otherwise I might suggest looking at the usual reliable sources for your UAS. (ie. Mainland, MGM etc...)
molinee
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You are right on the $$ about buying from the good guys. I agree totally, but sometimes you just gotz to take a flyer......
haolejohn
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Back when I was looking into getting my first decent uke I was looking into cordoba. The "koa" price tag was just so much less than other ukes. After much research I was able to conclide that the "koa" is actually brazillian or portugese koa which is actually acacia. Apparently koa is acacia but all acacia isn't koa. It bothered me that they labeled their uke as "koa". I decided to pass and get a real koa uke.
molinee
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Well I tried out three Cordoba 25CK Concerts today at GC and there certainly were differences in quality and sound between them. Of the two best ones soundwise, they both played really quiet and thin compared to my Kala Mango Concert. The Kala cost approx $60 less and sounded 300 percent better. Intonation at 12th were off up to 25c for the A string on two of them. In fairness, I am thinking that a string upgrade would probably help the Cordobas. Me thinks I will pass on the Cordoba.... Also, no good Koa smell came with the Cordoba.
MGM
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Here we go with so called Portugese Koa. There is no such thing...To use the word Koa the wood must grow in Hawaii from what I understand. Also Cordorbas are Australian Blackwood is the exact species. It galls me when i see these sellers listing these as solid Koa...what a crock
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haolejohn
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MGM
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I am not sure what legalities are involved but its just people trying to capitilize on the popularity of real koa as a ukulele selling point. sometimes its just the ignorance of the sellers to believe anything they are told by the distribution salesman
haolejohn
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when i moved back to georgia and decided to get a real ukulele i started looking around and i immediately had a red flag b/c of the price difference. I knew there was no way that the cordoba could be a real koa ukulele. Needless to say I called cordoba and was told that it was either the brazillian koa (which is actually tigerwood?) or the portugese koa (which is something else) or the same wood you mentioned (australlian one). It erks me when people say that it is real koa and I think it is shadey as well. Luckily we got guys like you and mike at ukerepublic that honestly care about the uke and not just the dollar.
kenikas
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Koa is a species of acacia that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, and that is the ONLY place it comes from. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of species of acacia, but only one Koa Acacia
MGM
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As a side note to ethics....The Koa Pili Kokos sold recently on ebay have labels which appear to be Kellii's kpk label...KC Moore who designed and started KPK line has since dropped it due to wood cracking problems....The ones sold with his labels now are not authorized and he will honor no warranty on any with his name bought from these sellers. KC specifically told me to post about this as he gets calls about problems with these ukes he is no longer selling nor authorizing anyone to use these labels
Ahnko Honu
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Seems like all the newer stuff coming from the factory that built the Koa Pili Koko have switched to the "Melokia" label. They also are selling mahogany versions for about 10% less than their Acacias. Are 'ukulele that are sold as Mahogany even made from real Mahogany? I have heard that many sell Nato wood as Mahogany. From what I gathered real Honduras Mahogany is getting pretty hard to come by so why any cheaper than Koa or Acacia?
haolejohn
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I have heard this as well. I know of one distributer that tried to sell a Lanikai (i think) that was nato as mahoghany. This was many years back when I was first in the ukulele market.
SuperSecretJohn
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From my standpoint, it seems Cordoba places a huge chunk of their funding on marketing—not quality control. The company sort of reminds me of GAP clothing.
haolejohn
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You know what though, I actually enjoy GAP. back when I was almost fat, they always had the size that fit me. And my wife loves Bannanna Republic shirts and sweaters on me.
Joe Hell
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I own the 25TK-CE...Koa or no Koa I've got no complaints
beeejums
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I traded a Flea (a good uke) for a mahogany Cordoba, which turned out to be a not so good uke. Thank goodness I was able to undo the deal. Now I advise people to stay away from Cordoba, because I don't have nice things to say about their quality control *or* their customer service.
uke552
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I have the ck25, my first concet uke. I played it several times at my local GC. They had a sale plus I had a 15% off coupon so I paid just over $200.00 for it (included a decent padded gig bag). I enjoy playing it and have nothing bad to report about the uke...my :2cents:
