Kamaka Tenor (extended neck) thinking about buying one

Howie1947

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Anyone have any thoughts or experiences with this model. I know is it slightly longer than the traditional tenor. Any advantage playing with this larger model? disadvantages?...........Thanks.............. Also, what type of active pick-up system would be good.? I think Kamaka uses Fishman.
 
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I've thought about this one also. You'd get a little more sustain and maybe a little more volume. I thought it had 1 or 2 extra frets, not 100% sure though. Cons? Fret spacing would be a little further, so depending on what you are playing you may have to stretch further.

It's been rumored that Jake's tenor is an extended, don't know if its true or not... Anyone ever ask him?
 
You saw some video or photo? I never saw this model. It looks like a "super-super-concert"?
 
I've thought about this one also. You'd get a little more sustain and maybe a little more volume. I thought it had 1 or 2 extra frets, not 100% sure though. Cons? Fret spacing would be a little further, so depending on what you are playing you may have to stretch further.

It's been rumored that Jake's tenor is an extended, don't know if its true or not... Anyone ever ask him?

Jake's uke has a standard length tenor neck.

BTW - Did you ever post pics of your HF-3 PedalFreak?

Sorry - back to the program.
 
I played one at Blue Guitar in San Diego. If it's the same one, then this one has 15 frets to the body and 19 total I think. It's basically the same as a KoAloha neck. I didn't notice the scale being longer or anything. It could be, but if it was it was so slight that it wasn't noticeable. In any case, it sounded great!

Howie you can go to Blue Guitar and try it out. I believe he still has it. I was just there about 3 weeks ago. A word of caution, I did not have a good experiece with the owner. Even though he and my dad know each other, he still treated me very odd. I'll just leave it at that.
 
I have not played the Kamaka. But both my tenors have an 18 inch scale.

I really like the longer scale as there is a little more room and the added string tension makes the string firmer and to me they fret better... don't slide as easy.

As for volume, I'm not sure more tension always equals more volume. A quality instrument should be built/braced for a certain tension range and too much tension can be just as bad as too little.

John
 
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