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
Holy crap, those are pretty! Was this photo taken at HMS or at the KoAloha factory. (My credit card wants to know. LOL.)
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."
Aloha Doc,There is a 'Tiger' inlay Red Label KoALoha for sale from HMS for $2,999 on ebay ... can we call it $3k?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KOALOHA-CUSTOM-TENOR-RED-LABEL-moo-inlaid-UKULELE-W-DLX-OAHU-CASE-/130777766481?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e72f65a51
My understanding from the instragram feed was that these are sold already.
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]
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.
Aloha Doc,
that is a Mo'o in hawaiian..or lizard, Gecko look at it's tongue.....