Opinions on Kamoas

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mandrew

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What do you all think of Kamoas? The clips I have heard sound great!
 
Got a Kamoa E3-T (tenor) recently. It's an all-solid, some-kinda-spruce top, with maple back and sides. This model comes with low-G tuning. It sounds fine to my ears. I use it mostly for early (medieval -> Renaissance era) music.

From what I can see, the woods are not of the highest cosmetic quality. They come in stained brown and gold, rather than natural.

I bought mine because I wanted to try out a dedicated low-G ukulele ... the Kamoa was the best one in my favorite shop, which was closing. Got a great price! All in all, I'm rather fond of my Kamoa.
 
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As long as it brings you pleasure, who cares what we think! Always play before you buy.

that said, I don't like them... :)
 
Kamoa makes a mighty fine uke. I have a soprano from the vintage series and it gets played almost as much as my Koaloha soprano. My local guitar shop stocks Kamoa ukes and I have played a bunch of 'em....great value for the money!
 
Tigeralum2001 said:
As long as it brings you pleasure, who cares what we think! Always play before you buy.

that said, I don't like them... :)
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I like mine, but I played all they had in the store (Larry's Music aka The Kamoa Store) and picked the one I liked. Also bought a tenor for my nephew because it felt pretty indestructible foe an early teens who is hard on his stuff.
 
As long as it brings you pleasure, who cares what we think! Always play before you buy.
Click to expand...

I kind of thought that was the reason for forums, to share and get others opinions. Why are you here if you want to blow off questions like that?
 
Tigeralum2001 said:
As long as it brings you pleasure, who cares what we think! Always play before you buy.
Click to expand...

Whoopsie, I've never played before buying. All three of my babies are very much loved and appreciated. I researched as much as I could online. The kind of ukes I wanted to try are not available in any stores near my town.
 
I don't like them at all myself. I've played 4 of them in concert and soprano size and they were unbalanced, overbuilt and sounded muted.
 
mandrew said:
I kind of thought that was the reason for forums, to share and get others opinions. Why are you here if you want to blow off questions like that?
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He didn't blow it off. Did you read the fine print below the line you quoted or were you more intent on causing a ruckus?
 
mandrew said:
I kind of thought that was the reason for forums, to share and get others opinions. Why are you here if you want to blow off questions like that?
Click to expand...

I thought he gave his opinon too...IMO
 
mandrew said:
I kind of thought that was the reason for forums, to share and get others opinions. Why are you here if you want to blow off questions like that?
Click to expand...
sorry if you think I blew it off; I could definitely have added more detail. I think it is generally frowned upon to speak poorly of anything on this board. I definitely understand that people work hard on their brand and I don't want to stand in anyone's way of making a profit (unless you blatantly steal- but that is another story).

I have played about a dozen Kamoas and they were all heavy, overbuilt, muted, and overpriced, in my opinion. I think this opinion is likely shared by others. However, opinions are like... Anyway, each set of wood has unique properties and any one uke could sound magnificent. Also, each brand has its own fan base.

Anyhow, I meant what I said. The only thing that matters is that you like it and you enjoy it. If I had the choice of no ukes or a Kamoa, I would pick the Kamoa. Thankfully, I have other options. (even if we limited it to the same price range, I think there are better options; but that is one guy's opinion. I respect your right to disagree. One thing I love about the uke world is its diversity. The more builders there are, the better, in my opinion.)
 
Agree that Kamoas aren't great. I tested one that I ordered from Elderly, a middle range Kamoa (not a cheaply priced one, not their top of the line), and it was poor and I sent it back to Elderly Music for a KoAloha that cost about 100 bucks more. Had I kept it, I would have had to acknowledge ownership forever: Kamoa resale value is horrendous.

Any ukulele can sound good on samples, OP. That is a fact: internet sound samples are notoriously inaccurate, regressing to the mean (better ukes sound average, average ukes sound better--in the end, they all sound similar (the mean) in ukulele sound samples (esp video sound samples).
 
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Friend bought one and it was just Okay. The build was solid, but it was over built and not the best sound. I have a Zebra-wood Ohana that cost about the same and sound much better.
 
The cheaper ones are a great value. I had an entry-level laminate soprano that I really liked, and the all-solid ones under $200 sound and play fine too. If you're set on Kamoa I'd avoid anything fancier than the E3 series, because the expensive ones actually sound noticeably worse than the cheap ones. The 700 series is pretty and the build quality is super clean, but they are heavy and have way too much finish to produce a good sound. Way too close in price to a high-end Pono or a K-brand to justify sounding like a $100 laminate. It's a shame, too, because I've never had a bad experience with Larry's Music and I really wanted to like the whole Kamoa line. If they removed about half the finish and half the price they'd have some really nice mid-priced ukes!
 
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