KoALoha Necks?

iDavid

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I recently got a KoAloha Concert and am absolutely TRILLED with it. I especially like the feel of the neck.


How do the KoAloha tenor necks compare with their concerts necks? (besides the obviously scale difference)
 
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I've got 4 KoAlohas with Tenor necks (Tenor, SuperConcert, Pineapple Sunday, Tenor Sceptre), and just one with a Concert Neck. I'd say it's just as comfortable, and just longer. Of course, the KoAloha necks are all hand shaped, which means that no two are the same. My superconcert probably has the thinnest (depth-wise) neck out of all of them, which I do not prefer. I prefer the more beefy neck on my Tenor, PS, and Sceptre. But even then, I can feel the slight differences in the taper among those necks. Another aspect is the neck finish. I sanded the finish on my Superconcert neck down to basically a satin or silk finish just to see how it'd feel. I like it better than before when it had quite a bit of finish on it. The finish on my PS, Tenor, and Sceptre necks feel thinner and I don't forsee sanding that finish off. Finally, the higher and fatter frets that KoAloha uses just makes the necks comfortable to play. I like them all, but they're all handmade, so they will be different.

Compared to the tenor necks on my Kanilea and Kamaka, I would honestly say that I prefer the KoAloha, at least based on the instruments that I own. Kanilea's UV finish sometimes gets sticky when my hand sweats on the back of the neck. Also, I find their neck a bit thinner than I like. HOWEVER, Aldrine's Kanilea has an awesome neck thickness and profile. I absolutly love that neck, and I think the KoAloha PS that I have gets pretty close to that shape and thickness. Kamaka also has a nice thick neck, and awesome body balance with the center of balance on their tenor right at the 12th fret. Another cool thing is that Kamaka's neck is a one piece construction. I really have no complaints against their neck, but the "feel" of my KoAloha tenor neck is just "better" to me.

It's hard to describe, and different people have different preferences. But I do like KoAloha's tenor neck. However, the best neck that I have ever played is still Aldrine's Kanilea. It was like magic to my hands...night and day difference between that neck and the neck on my K1-T. So important lesson there is that even though it's from the same maker, the necks can be different.
 
Maybe I got lucky with my KoAloha Concert. The neck feels just perfect. I am just trying to justify buying more ukes. I will be selling off several guitars soon and would like to sink the cash into ukes. However, this KoAloha is so good, I am not sure I would play anything else. I looked at Mya-Moes a while back and I still have an eye them. I am going to Washington state this summer, so hopefully I can play one of those.

I don't really dig the meaty necks, btw. I like the thinner ones and that's what I got.
 
CNC Shaped Sapele Neck

Check the KoAloha web site and look at the specifications for concert ukuleles and you'll find that it has a "CNC Shaped Sapele Concert Neck". The same applies to their tenor. I didn't dig any deeper, perhaps the custom or "all koa" ones have the hand shaped necks. Five of mine have the CNC shaped Sapele necks and other than the scale length they are the same. My oldest is a soprano, all koa, so it may have a hand shaped neck. Maybe they used it or one like it to set up the CNC machine because it feels like the others to me.
There ain't no bad KoAlohas, just some that look funny.:)

Jude
 
Actually, all of our necks are currently CNC rough shaped, with the exception of all koa special orders and certain custom requests. After CNC shaping, we still do the final shape by hand. While the necks are perfectly uniform out of the box, they're about the same profile that we use when rough hand shaping, so they aren't quite there yet.
 
Actually, all of our necks are currently CNC rough shaped, with the exception of all koa special orders and certain custom requests. After CNC shaping, we still do the final shape by hand. While the necks are perfectly uniform out of the box, they're about the same profile that we use when rough hand shaping, so they aren't quite there yet.

Are the concert on the tenor the "same" feel but with different scale then.
 
iDavid
Maybe I got lucky with my KoAloha Concert. The neck feels just perfect. I am just trying to justify buying more ukes. I will be selling off several guitars soon and would like to sink the cash into ukes. However, this KoAloha is so good, I am not sure I would play anything else. I looked at Mya-Moes a while back and I still have an eye them. I am going to Washington state this summer, so hopefully I can play one of those.

I don't really dig the meaty necks, btw. I like the thinner ones and that's what I got.
peace,

david

Hi David,

If you like thinner necks you really should try a LoPrinzi. I got a spruce top Loprinzi for my birthday and the neck is heaven. Thin and flat, it's really made a difference to my life :cool:
 
Davidi

Volume's pretty powerful on my one, which is a soprano with mahogany back and sides and spruce top, and the clarity of the sound is great. But playability is really where I find it gets top marks... the neck, the neck!

If it's koa you're into though, I have never had a chance to play a koa Loprinzi.

I'm in Europe, so I got a pretty good deal by adding the price, which is very reasonable, to the euro-dollar exchange rate.

Sorry, I'm ranting... I can only say good things about my Loprinzi :)
 
Dave,

The profile between the concert and tenor should be slightly different. While the tenor necks are thicker, we shape them slightly flatter, while the standards and concerts should be a little more round. It's a subtle difference, but there. Since they are still finished profiled by hand, no two are exactly alike.
 
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