Has anyone here owned a Kamoa ukulele?

Brian W

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If you currently own, or have owned a Kamoa, please post your thoughts and experiences. I am considering a 500-S soprano, but will not have the ability to try it out first, since no local music stores carry them. This model is one of a few brands that I am considering. The other brands (Koaloha, Kamaka, Kiwaya) are more expensive, and probably have better build quality, but it would be nice to know what actual owners think of their Kamoa's.
 
I haven't owned one, but I have played quite a few. I will do something rarely seen here- tell you to stay away from a brand. They are overbuilt and overpriced, IMHO. They have no track record for resale value, so that can be a problem in the future.

I think there are much better ukes out there. Heck, I think I'd recommend a Kala or Ohana over a Kamoa. I'm sure others will post great things, but that has not been my experience. PM for more details.
 
I have a Kamoa E3-GC. It is my first ukulele. I appreciate the all solid wood construction, ease of playability up and down the fretboard, good sustain, and the affordability. I purchased my Kamoa from http://www.anacapaukulele.com/. my local Ukulele shop and resource center. I am awaiting the arrival of my Mya-Moe tenor next week but am happy that I have the Kamoa to play.

Harry Callahan: "Bene le opinioni sono come i coglioni, ognuno ha uno."
 
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I haven't owned one, but I have played quite a few. I will do something rarely seen here- tell you to stay away from a brand. They are overbuilt and overpriced, IMHO. They have no track record for resale value, so that can be a problem in the future.

I think there are much better ukes out there. Heck, I think I'd recommend a Kala or Ohana over a Kamoa. I'm sure others will post great things, but that has not been my experience. PM for more details.

Thanks. I just sent you a PM.
 
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I had the basic laminate mahogany soprano and thought it was a great uke for the money. They seemed to really take off about two years ago with tons of new models, but then stopped updating their site and faded out. Anyone know what happened?
 
I stand by what I said in the thread linked above.
 
Very poor sounding instruments in my view. I've owned two and was extremely disappointed. You can do better and at comparable or cheaper prices.
 
I was looking forward to owning one last year. I love clear and bright ukuleles and some of their models are made of all solid Spruce/Flamed Maple, and this wood combo is known to give bright tones.

I visited my local ukulele shop where they displayed many brands, including Kamoa. I played the Spruce/Flamed Maple models and to my disappointment all the tones sounded VERY thick. I strongly suspected it was not the strings problem. I talked to the staff who explained that tonewoods are not the sole determinant in the instrument's sound. The thickness, bracing, structure etc. all contribute to the tone.

I turned away from the Kamoas and as I played with other brands, I realised that Ohana and Mainland sounded way clearer and better. This experience was my first encounter with Ohana and Mainland. I ended up buying an Ohana all solid spruce/rosewood soprano.
 
I have two Kamoas, one is a soprano that I received as a gift, the other is a Kauai built koa uke. I don't play the soprano, but that is just because I don't play sopranos. It has a nice tone but I found the tuning was difficult.

As to the Kauai built, I bought it for sentimental reasons. I love that island and my grandmother was laid to rest there so I wanted a uke built there. It costs as much as my K brands but was worth it to me, again, for sentimental reasons. It actually sounds very good - better in tone and volume than my Kamaka, about the same as my Kanilea. The action is too high for my tastes though, and I prefer the tone of my KoAloha and playability of my Kanilea so I rarely play it. That being said, I would never part with it. Just as well since resale value appears to be minimal...
 
I have an E3 Pineapple. They do sound kind of "thick". Mine came with Aquila strings which will probably get swapped for some Worths in the near future. The sound of my instrument is very finicky...some days it has the mellow, warm tone that I was hoping for...other days it just sounds dull to me. Intonation up the fretboard is decent - could be better, could be worse. Other than that, there are some finish flaws but I think it looks cool. I like the feel and speed of the fretboard.

Overall, I'm happy with mine and the $160 I spent, but probably won't buy another Kamoa.
 
I have no issue whatsoever with $ 160 Kamoas. What utterly boils my piss is the fact that they ask almost K-Brand prices for multicoloured, chinese-made tenors of questionable quality and tone. If ever there was a case of Bling Vs Quality, those are it.
 
As to the Kauai built, I bought it for sentimental reasons. I love that island

And if I had the spare cash, I'd buy one tomorrow for exactly the same reason, despite everything I've ever said about Kamoa. As far as I know, the only Kauai-build Ukes are these and the Ukulele-shaped piles of overpriced firewood built by Raymond Rapozo.
 
I have an E3 Pineapple. They do sound kind of "thick". Mine came with Aquila strings which will probably get swapped for some Worths in the near future. The sound of my instrument is very finicky...some days it has the mellow, warm tone that I was hoping for...other days it just sounds dull to me. Intonation up the fretboard is decent - could be better, could be worse. Other than that, there are some finish flaws but I think it looks cool. I like the feel and speed of the fretboard.

Overall, I'm happy with mine and the $160 I spent, but probably won't buy another Kamoa.
My first ukulele, a good starter ukulele, and an entry level beginner one which did not break the bank.

Samuel Bonanno, the founder of Kamoa Ukulele Company responds here to a review: http://www.yelp.com/biz/kamoa-ukulele-company-kapaa-2

If you want to get to the nitty gritty and discuss an issue with his product, he most likely can be contacted here:
Kamoa™ Ukulele Company, Inc.
4-1310 Kuhio Hwy.
Kapa'a, HI 96746
USA
(808) 652-9999

email:
sales@kamoaukes.com


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kamoa-Ukulele-Company/439096729443201?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/samuel.bonanno.14?fref=ts
 
Thanks for your review, we have been asked by the customers who have come before (Open since 1952 on Kauai) after years of live quality assurance to show what we pass and fail as our requirements. We have no mission to trash talk anyone but rather we express the clear standards that Kamoa company measures to qualify an instrument as a pass or fail. We have demonstrated our simple but very critical to quality requirements to most every customer over the last 10 years as a basic respect and service to the user. We perform live QAQC on a microphone and this practice has protected the vast majority of Kamoa customers from getting what we classify as a defective instrument. We sincerely hope you don't take our quality assurance as an attack but hope you gain insight into what we measure in harmonic sophistication is the true serve to the player/customer rather than selling a defective instrument as it seems most other manufactures prefer to do. If we don't show a pass and a fail to our customers they are not educated and less likely to make a wise buying decision. Kamoa Ukuleles are preferred globally because of our strict standards and we are happy to share them for education and benefit of customers who wish to understand the difference between a harmonically sophisticated instrument and one which produces distorted low quality note value. That is our legacy.

All I can hear in my head when I read that is "blah blah blah". The worst kind of meaningless, corporate-speak. Half of it is grammatically nonsensical. I think he must have had his lawyer write it.
 

Samuel Bonanno, the founder of Kamoa Ukulele Company responds here to a review: http://www.yelp.com/biz/kamoa-ukulele-company-kapaa-2
That is too funny! I'd say many things about Kamoa, but "globally preferred" and "tonally sophisticated" are not amongst them. On the other hand, perhaps the mic they are using for this test is broken or the software defective. I may not had the best ear or perfect pitch, but I know good tone when I hear it. I'd love to put some of my ukes through their process...

play one before buying- a great rule in general, but requirement for certain brands. Kamoa is one of those that require play before purchase.
 
Interesting discussion. When I returned from a 2 week Maui stay that included a Jake concert, I decided to look into ukes. While I have both solid woods and laminated guitars and mandolins, I thought that a solid wood uke would be a place to start. After a bit of online research, I focused in on a Kamoa E3. Off I went to the local uke shop to check things out.

Maybe it was because I didn't have much of a reference point, but the E3 sounded pretty good to me. There was a bit of "thinness" to the sound, but it seemed to be an acceptable starting point. Oddly enough, what got me to start looking at alternatives was the finish. All of the E3s that were hanging on the wall looked like my cat had been strumming them. The dealer said it was typical of the Kamoa finish. I decided that, since I have never needed a pick guard, I wasn't going to buy an instrument that had been played by people who do.

I walked out with a Pono ATDC, but have since wondered about the other models in the Kamoa line.
 
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