WTB: Red Label KoAloha Tenor

If you have a Red Label KoAloha Tenor for sale please send me a private message

I have a sweet tenor ukulele made by Tarcicio in Mexico. Has red label

Howie1947 said:

I have a sweet tenor ukulele made by Tarcicio in Mexico. Has red label

Click to expand...

This isn't funny and I think it's disrespectful to the OP. It's also not the only UU Marketplace WTB thread in which you've left a post like this. Please give some thought to the person whose thread you're posting in before you leave another post like this one.

you might want to check with shawn at ukulelefriend -- I think he has these sometimes. I also see them appear occasionally on ebay. You should also follow koaloha on instagram--you can see what's coming soon--and if there are red labels that you might be able to buy new.

BTW, I don't really think that Howie's joke was intended to be or came across as disrespectful.

I have a friend who has one, and might sell.. it's a real rare one Alan okami found made several years ago but it is almost new. Let me tell you, it's not gonna be cheap

Being somewhat new to the world of ukulele, what is the special feature of the red label KoAloha over a standard KoAloha?

Choirguy said:

Being somewhat new to the world of ukulele, what is the special feature of the red label KoAloha over a standard KoAloha?

Click to expand...

They are not factory production made ukes. The Black Labels and Red Labels are the custom oriented ukuleles by KoAloha. Sometimes they have different necks or bracings, a lot of times they have more premium wood, or inlays as well. They are usually made by one luthier, sometimes a group of the KoAloha guys will have worked on one of them. But there is a lot more individual attention paid to them. KoAlohas are great, Red Labels and Black Labels are even better.

Stacey has literally written the book on KoAloha and has great info. Just to supplement what she's said, KoAloha has different teams of luthiers who work on these things. The team of red label luthiers is rather small--I think in the past they've only had about 6 or 7 senior guys. The red label KoAlohas give them a chance to experiment with new things. Once they did neck inlays (I really wanted one), once they did rossettes, once they did a modified sound hole, once they did a solid body, and they also did a mixed wood one before they starting offering that as a regular production uke.... and apart from those experimental ones, there is also a different kind of koaloha which is called a special issue. The special issues are different from the red labels, bc they typically just use a different kind of wood (e.g. spruce top) or a special curly koa. But I don't think that the red label team works on those and don't think that the bracing is different from the regular koalohas. The red label ukes have different bracing--i've never played one but my understanding is that they have a deeper and more resonant tone. The black label is even more exclusive--i think there are only one or two guys who work on them. Sometimes they have other kinds of specials--like the 20th anniversary ukes that were only sold to Japan--not sure whether those count as red labels or something totally different.

Paul Okami used to work on the black labels, but i don't think it's just him anymore. I believe that Paul is mostly working on the business end now and overseeing the production everywhere. I don't think he has that much time for building, but believe that he is working on a white label.

wickedwahine11 said:

They are not factory production made ukes. The Black Labels and Red Labels are the custom oriented ukuleles by KoAloha. Sometimes they have different necks or bracings, a lot of times they have more premium wood, or inlays as well. They are usually made by one luthier, sometimes a group of the KoAloha guys will have worked on one of them. But there is a lot more individual attention paid to them. KoAlohas are great, Red Labels and Black Labels are even better.

Click to expand...

Thanks to all who have posted outstanding information on KoAloha Red and Black labels; it was very informative for me. One question I have on Red Labels is the emblem on the headstock. The Red Label shown on the HMS web site has a red label inside the sound hole but also has a spread wing type of emblem on the headstock. Do all red lables have this emblem or is this an add-on at a later date?

You may wish to contact israin via pm. This user has a red label mango tenor with baggs 5.0 pickup listed now.

singsong said:

Thanks to all who have posted outstanding information on KoAloha Red and Black labels; it was very informative for me. One question I have on Red Labels is the emblem on the headstock. The Red Label shown on the HMS web site has a red label inside the sound hole but also has a spread wing type of emblem on the headstock. Do all red lables have this emblem or is this an add-on at a later date?

Click to expand...

No, those are not added on. Their custom ukes use the winged KoAloha logo.