Does anybody have an informed opinion about sound quality of Taiwanese Koa VS Hawaiian Koa? I am looking to buy a new tenor Uke but can't afford a custom made one with crazy curly Koa from Hawaii... obviously my first choice, BUT please, why is a tiny instrument so expensive? I've been looking at some beauties ffrom 1,500$ to 7000& or more. So I thought I might get the next best thing which is an affordable instrument from a Taiwanese manufacturer. What do you guys think? Any help would be appreciated. I am looking for a tenor Uke from Koa, just to get a nice authentic sound and that raspy ring in the sound. Thanks!!!:music:
Is Taiwanese Koa the same as Hawaiian Koa? Please help, looking to buy a new Uke
- Thread starter Koalover
- Start date
Taiwanese Koa is an oxymoron. Koa is a variety of acacia that only grows in Hawaii, On the plus side, I have seen some acacia that rivals some pretty fancy looking koa. As far as sound, I have a KPK concert solid acacia uke that sounds like a way more expensive koa uke with that woody, ringing bark you are looking for. Can't speak to the one you are considering. Wondering if they have a liberal return policy?
SoloRule
Well-known member
Taiwanese Koa is actually Acacia . Cousin of the Hawaii Koa. It does not sound the same. It is much richer and deeper tone and is much heavier in weight too. I own both so I know the difference in sound and weight. They are definitely not the same in look, sound and weight.
wayfarer75
Well-known member
Acacia can make a nice uke, nothing wrong with it per se. Pono and KPK are examples of inexpensive uke builders who use acacia, but not Acacia koa. Like spruce. There's Picea rubens (red or Adirondack spruce) and Picea engelmannii (Engelmann spruce); both are used in instruments but they're not the same.
There are several varieties of acacia, koa being one of them. They do not all look the same. Some "definitely look the same" as koa, some do not. Climate differences notwithstanding, if cut to equal thickness and with similar construction, they can "definitely" sound like koa and are no heavier. I too have several examples of both and have seen and played dozens more. As always, things vary from uke to uke and there are always exceptions based on factors known and unknown.
strumsilly
Well-known member
you can buy a very nice HI koa uke for a lot less than 1.5-7k, especially on the used market.
Good point. I just did a quick eBay search and found several K brands for less than $1,200, so I don't know where you got that 1.5-7k figure.
I run across several different koa K ukes weekly for the $700 to $900 price range depending on size, some less if you want to do a little work on them.
Nickie
Well-known member
This thread is in the wrong place, I stumbled on it by accident. Very informative!
:agree: Yup, so it is. Can't put anything past Nickie :uhoh:
Moore Bettah Ukuleles
Well-known member
Even the acacia koa in Hawaii doesn't all look or sound the same. Trees grown within a few miles from each other can have vast differences in weight, density, stiffness and color. No generalizations can be made about acacia koa. It's my guess that the same could be said of other varieties of koa. That's just a guess though.
But as has been said before, there is not such thing as Taiwanese koa. Acacia from Taiwan is really Formosan koa, grown widely in SE Asia and considered an invasive species in Hawaii (not to be confused with haole koa.) Commercially, Formosan koa is mostly used as flooring. (In SE Asia parts of the tree are also used as a medicine.) I have no working experience with Formosan koa so I can comment on it's sonic properties. But someone is trying to fool you by calling it koa.
But as has been said before, there is not such thing as Taiwanese koa. Acacia from Taiwan is really Formosan koa, grown widely in SE Asia and considered an invasive species in Hawaii (not to be confused with haole koa.) Commercially, Formosan koa is mostly used as flooring. (In SE Asia parts of the tree are also used as a medicine.) I have no working experience with Formosan koa so I can comment on it's sonic properties. But someone is trying to fool you by calling it koa.
Last edited:
How much are you able or willing to spend? Most players will ultimately want a Hawaiian Koa Uke, so you might as well pay the price for one now. You can get a new KoAloha or Kanilea Soprano made entirely in Hawaii for around 700$ (including a case):
http://www.theukulelesite.com/shop-by/hawaiian-made-ukulele.html?dir=asc&order=price
That's still a lot of money, but consider how much work goes into building a musical instrument, from a trained worker with a decent salary, and with Koa being scarce and therefore expensive.
If that's too high of a price, I would consider one of the well respected import brands, like Pono or Kala. My Acacia Pono sounds just as nice as any Koa Uke, no compromise in sound. The closest you can get to a Hawaiian Uke for under 400$ is probably the KoAloha Opio line: made in Thailand from Sapele wood, but to the exact same specs as the Hawaiian models.
Good luck, and let us know what you'll end up with...
http://www.theukulelesite.com/shop-by/hawaiian-made-ukulele.html?dir=asc&order=price
That's still a lot of money, but consider how much work goes into building a musical instrument, from a trained worker with a decent salary, and with Koa being scarce and therefore expensive.
If that's too high of a price, I would consider one of the well respected import brands, like Pono or Kala. My Acacia Pono sounds just as nice as any Koa Uke, no compromise in sound. The closest you can get to a Hawaiian Uke for under 400$ is probably the KoAloha Opio line: made in Thailand from Sapele wood, but to the exact same specs as the Hawaiian models.
Good luck, and let us know what you'll end up with...
strumsilly
Well-known member
I have a Koaloha tenor and someone in my uke group has an Opio tenor, they play and sound very similar. The Opio is plainer with a much thinner finish, but is also about half the price. The Kanilea Islanders are also quite nice and are even cheaper.
Sean Tiwanak
New member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2020
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
All Acacia is KOA... THere a distinction between Hawaiian Koa, which only fallen trees can be used becasue they are going extinct. Alaskan Koa was donated by a sister tribe to the Hawaiian voyaging society to make the voyaging vessle Hokule'a 2, better known as the HAWAI'I LOA, which circled the globe last year. The only distimction in Koa, the Hawaiian word for the Acacia Tree are the varying grades and where it is grown. Hawaiin Koa is the first agricultural species to establish on the Hawaiian Islands. It has distinct orange hue and bold grain patterns. It is very sensitive to micro climates and grows in specific micro environments. Other species of Koa are more hardy, such a s Alaskan, since it freezes and also get rather warm.
Koa is Koa, you specify Alaskan, Hawaiian, Thai, Taiwan, Bliabong whatever. As a Hawaiian, the voyaging society sees no difference.
Koa means Brave, bold, fearless, valiant; bravery, courage-the wood from that tree which is used to make canoes, surfboards, warrior implements, voyaging vessles and musical instruments.
If you want to learn more you can call me Sean Tiwanak Owner of www.UkuleleEmporium.com in Kapolei, Hawaii ph 1-213-6146
You can google me, Sean Tiwanak and see videos etc or find me on FB etc...
Mahalo and Aloha to you
Ukecaster
Well-known member
No expert here, but to my untrained eye, acacia can look a lot like koa sometimes, as seen in the pic below, a golden-hued tenor from Sean's website in the previous post, identified as "Koa Acacia". A very attractive koa look to me.
The Wood Database website shows many woods from the acacia family:https://www.wood-database.com/hardwoods/fabaceae/acacia/
To me, the nomenclature can get confusing. According to the Wood Database, the wood we think of as Hawaiian koa has a scientific name of "Acacia Koa". But if a uke is identified as "Koa Acacia", I'm left wondering exactly what that is.
In my mind, all koa is acacia, acacia being a genus containing several hundred species including "Acacia Koa", but not all acacia is koa. Like I said, I'm no expert, so grains of salt liberally applied.
The Wood Database website shows many woods from the acacia family:https://www.wood-database.com/hardwoods/fabaceae/acacia/
To me, the nomenclature can get confusing. According to the Wood Database, the wood we think of as Hawaiian koa has a scientific name of "Acacia Koa". But if a uke is identified as "Koa Acacia", I'm left wondering exactly what that is.
In my mind, all koa is acacia, acacia being a genus containing several hundred species including "Acacia Koa", but not all acacia is koa. Like I said, I'm no expert, so grains of salt liberally applied.
Last edited:
merlin666
Well-known member
This "Taiwanese Koa" should be labeled by its proper name "Acacia confusa", which seems only appropriate given the apparent confusion about this wood. My first ukulele was made of this confusa wood and I could not bond with it. Since then I have tried dozens of them in stores, from various brands including Kala, Opio, Pono, Ohana, etc. and have not found a single one where I could say it sounded great or outstanding. I would rather spend a little more for one made of Hawaiian Acacia koa, built by a Hawaiian family business.
Last edited:
Ukecaster
Well-known member
So what exact species of the genus acacia are most of the ukes we commonly see labeled as acacia by Opio, Kala, Ohana etc? "Acacia confusa"?
To further muddy the waters, the Wood Database also identifies "Acacia confusa" as "Formosan koa".
To further muddy the waters, the Wood Database also identifies "Acacia confusa" as "Formosan koa".
glennerd
Well-known member
Unless you're hung up on having to have Acacia grown from a tree in Hawaii (Koa), Acacia ukuleles can be very beautiful and sound very much like Koa. I doubt an acacia and a koa built exactly the same way would sound any more different than two koas built exactly the same way would. No two ukuleles sound exactly alike, and once you get it home it will be your amazing ukulele. But if you're hung up on being able to call your ukulele koa, then acacia's not going to cut it for you. Take the shirt test: do you need to have a certain designer label inside your shirt or are you more concerned with the quality of the shirt?
"Acacia" on its own doesn't tell you much. Acacias vary from scrubby shrubs with no usable wood, to Acacia peuce described in the Wood Database as one of the heaviest and hardest woods on earth!
I've built with both Acacia koa (from Hawaii) and with Acacia melanoxylon (Tasmanian or Australian Blackwood). Their appearance is similar, though the blackwood is darker, but they aren't the same to build with - the Blackwood was denser and stiffer, and needed to be very thin to work as a uke. Both sounded good, but different. That's only one data point, but it does come from someone who has used both species. And I've played Blackwood ukes not made by me which don't, to my ears, sound the same as koa, so that's another few data points.
I've no idea which species is used by the Taiwanese makers, though a web search suggests Acacia confusa. I've no experience working with that.
It's worth bearing in mind that Acacia koa is rare, because it only comes from Hawaii, and thus expensive. The other koas are invasive species which grow like weeds, and so should be no or very little more expensive than any other useful ukulele wood.
The other thing to consider is that, so far as I can discover, only Hawaiian Acacia koa will produce the very spectacular figuring you see on some ukes. All the other acacias seem to be much plainer.
I suspect an Acaia confusa uke, or an Acacia melanoxylon one, could sound pretty good though not quite the same. There's nothing magic in Acacia koa itself, just the tradition and its rarity. But don't expect a non-koa acacia to look as spectacular as some koa ukes do (that said, I own a Kumalae soprano from the 1920s which is made of koa, and is about as plain as could be in appearance).
