A New Franklin Guitar by Nick Kukich Shipping Soon...Pics

[Tone Gopher]

Thanks, Stuart.

I have a "thing" for good koa guitars. I played a koa Tippin at Larry Pattis' some years ago and dearly jonesed for it. My Grimes "Hapa" (OM size) is quite delightful too - most everything that Steve Grimes makes in koa is wonderful. For the Hapa, I went with Maui koa that is a little less dense than Big Island koa.

Thanks, Ray, for your comments as well. I do need to talk with El. I haven't seen him in years. I had a "Martin Simpson" for a while, too, and love what piano-like tones can come of a well-tuned jumbo top.

[FPicker]

Originally Posted by Tone Gopher

I've seen very few koa Franklins for sale. How is it that you cite "he was famous for koa guitars"?

Curious, because I am waiting for my build date to come up and am anticipating a koa build.

He made relatively lots of koa OMs in the early 80s, they are the second most prevalent Franklin OMs I've seen, next to Brazilian Rosewood. I'd say 1/4 of the old Franklins I've seen have koa back & sides. If you google it you will see some of them. IIRC I saw an old catalog where he had pricing for two different grades of koa.

Most of the older Jumbos were East Indian Rosewood. I've actually played a koa one though, so these definitely exist as well.

[CKme]

George,
When is your build due?
To your ears, what does koa contribute to a well made instrument?
Why koa instead of mahogany?.....besides the looks I mean.
Thanks

Ray

[rosewoodsteel]

Wow!
That's one pretty guitar.
Beautiful!

[Tone Gopher]

Thanks, FP. I have googled for Franklin guitars but didn't have "koa" in the search. I'll give that a shot.

CK - From my chats with Steve Grimes, koa covers much of the range between rosewood and mahogany (wrt density, Maui koa being least dense). In my limited experience, one can have upper mid complexity while tuning out lower boom. In a jumbo, I'm positing that one can select the wood to reduce the inherent boom in the bass (often enhanced by the body's volume) and yet retain complexity and bloom.

End of the day message: I'll be talking with Nick about whether I'm just blowing smoke and jonesin' for pretty wood. I'll leave the details of the build to him - it's his design and build. I'm just after the music.

[CKme]

Thanks George for your reply. I am still mulling whether to get a koa Franklin.
Definitely don't need another guitar, but, but

[Tone Gopher]

Originally Posted by CKme

Thanks George for your reply. I am still mulling whether to get a koa Franklin.
Definitely don't need another guitar, but, but

Follow up: A huge thanks to AGF and this thread in particular.

My build has started! Turns out that Nick got a log of koa back in the '70s that he hasn't quite used up yet - same wood as used in El McMeen's jumbo.

.

And, since so many of this forum are so adamant about Adirondack, my guitar will have a top of German spruce.

[Larry Pattis]

Originally Posted by Tone Gopher

Follow up: A huge thanks to AGF and this thread in particular.

My build has started! Turns out that Nick got a log of koa back in the '70s that he hasn't quite used up yet - same wood as used in El McMeen's jumbo.

.

And, since so many of this forum are so adamant about Adirondack, my guitar will have a top of German spruce.

I love you, man.

You'll have to start a new build-thread for the Franklin Jumbo...if Nick can take some photos. If not, we'll just expect a full report when feasible!

[stuartb]

Tone Gopher, Congratulations,

I am going to have to insist that you record some music and send it to me though. But I will give you three months, so that the guitar has a chance to fully open up.

I'd love to hear what Nick's KOA sounds like.

New thread...new thread...new thread...

Get nick to snap off some photos.


Stuart

[Tone Gopher]

Done.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=196556