A first look at the new RED Label Koaloha Custom tenors

MGM

MGM

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Here is the first batch of Red labels custom tenors from Koaloha.Have a look. Red labels are customs made by the long time builders...black labels are reserved for Paul okamis customs
redlabels_zpsb609027a.png
 
Holy crap, those are pretty! Was this photo taken at HMS or at the KoAloha factory. (My credit card wants to know. LOL.)
 
Looks like at the store, I will be at your store again in Feb, hope to look at these beauties . Thanks Mike
Don in Oregon
 
Yikes, bow tie bridges! Run!
 
Good grief. I suspect one of those has my name on it. Ugh I've gotta get a grip on this sickness...
 
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I was talking to Alan about the Honu one a couple months ago. He sent me a photo of it, great looking ukes! I don't know if the pricing changed since then, so I'll let MGM on that, but I thought for being a Custom KoAloha they were reasonably priced.

He gave me a chance to buy it, actually glad I didn't, ended up needing to have surgery and that took up a lot of money.
 
MGM said:
Here is the first batch of Red labels custom tenors from Koaloha.Have a look. Red labels are customs made by the long time builders...black labels are reserved for Paul okamis customs
redlabels_zpsb609027a.png
Click to expand...

Humm, I emailed them a little over a week ago and they said they were not going to build any customs or take custom orders for at least a year. Actually I just found the email reply from Brian: he says:

"Thank you for taking an interest in KoAloha Ukulele! We would normally be able to fulfill your request. However, due to a 4 year back order, we are currently not accepting any custom builds at this time. We do have a new build schedule in place that aims to have two customs completed every month. If everything goes according to schedule, we will be reopening custom build sometime in mid 2014. We apologize for the bad news."
 
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mds725 said:
Holy crap, those are pretty! Was this photo taken at HMS or at the KoAloha factory. (My credit card wants to know. LOL.)
Click to expand...

Ha ha tell your credit card it is at the Koaloha factory..does not look like The Ukulele Site(HMS) if you order one get it from Mike(MGM) you can't go wrong!
 
My understanding from the instragram feed was that these are sold already.

Skinny Money McGee said:
Humm, I emailed them a little over a week ago and they said they were not going to build any customs or take custom orders for at least a year. Actually I just found the email reply from Brian: he says:

"Thank you for taking an interest in KoAloha Ukulele! We would normally be able to fulfill your request. However, due to a 4 year back order, we are currently not accepting any custom builds at this time. We do have a new build schedule in place that aims to have two customs completed every month. If everything goes according to schedule, we will be reopening custom build sometime in mid 2014. We apologize for the bad news."
Click to expand...
 
Plainsong said:
My understanding from the instragram feed was that these are sold already.
Click to expand...

His email seemed a little confusing to me. Says 4 year backlog of customs, then says they may start taking more custom orders in two.

If that's the case, in two years they will still have two years of back orders. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Maybe reading between the lines, the Hawaii shop will become a pure custom shop and the production ukes will move to Thailand with the Koalanas?
 
Skinny Money McGee said:
Humm, I emailed them a little over a week ago and they said they were not going to build any customs or take custom orders for at least a year. [/I]
Click to expand...

These probably really aren't considered "Customs." As it's not Paul building them, but a team that was trained by him. I had asked about a custom and that is when Alan told me about the Red Labels. Sound's like they may be doing small batches of Red Label ukes in order to help people get a "Custom" from them.
 
Hmm tough to say. Certainly shifting the larger customer base onto the offshoot brand frees up the company to do more custom work. But all the brands are doing this now with the exception of Kamaka. Maybe it hasn't been thought out that far, just that it eases the strain of keeping up with demand. I don't know either way, just guessing from what Kanilea and Koolau have done... with much success.
 
Plainsong said:
Hmm tough to say. Certainly shifting the larger customer base onto the offshoot brand frees up the company to do more custom work. But all the brands are doing this now with the exception of Kamaka. Maybe it hasn't been thought out that far, just that it eases the strain of keeping up with demand. I don't know either way, just guessing from what Kanilea and Koolau have done... with much success.
Click to expand...

Well, I hope they can get their custom back log in order. All I wanted was a semi-custom Herb Ohta model with no fancy inlays, or etchings, just ebony fretboard and bridge, and some nice looking koa.

Those Koalanas from Thailand look Really nice for the money. My Daughter is learning uke, I may get her one of those for Christmas. Wish them all the luck whatever transforms with their Custom shop.
 
Wow! I'm not sure what I was expecting, but those look much better than what I was expecting. Nice to see some inlay, too.
 
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