For the Love of Koa!

[GangstaPat]

Opinion poll gang. I love koa. Who does it best, Taylor or Goodall? Anyone else out there really knock it out of the park when it comes to koa? I have heard that Lowden and Beneteau really kill it too. What do you think?

[mischultz]

Of the four you mention, Taylor will be the least equipped to follow the wood and maximize the impact. Simply a function of their scale and technology driven process. The other three will, again by virtue of their process and production scale, be more likely to maximize the potential of a particular set of wood. Of the available options, I think the Goodalls have inarguably the most depth of knowledge re: koa having been located in Hawaii for a long stretch of their business. Whether their voicing is to your preference is another matter altogether. None of the options will tend toward an American vintage voice, but neither are they tightly clustered. Maybe a road trip is in order for some good hands-on time.

[fitness1]

These two aren't too bad (see my signature!)

[BrunoBlack]

I think Goodall, Santa Cruz and Collings are worthy.

[ataylor]

Martin, about a century ago.

http://www.vintagemartin.com/hawaiian.html

I personally prefer the plain, almost-mahogany-looking stuff, but I get why folks get excited about the figured koa.

[asobi]

Can't speak for others but Collings does Koa justice, both aesthetically and sonically.

[FormerFoodie]

One of these days, I would love a koa guitar.

I've found koa to be particularly highly variable in terms of sound. It's one of those woods where I would be really hesitant to buy sound unheard. I remember playing one that was utterly gorgeous, but completely underwhelming from a sonic perspective.

I would definitely consider a Froggy Koa. Rumor has it, there was a crazy awesome 00-koa from Circa Guitars a while back at Luthiers collection. Had that had a cutaway, I probably would have nabbed it. Ultimately, I'd really like to play one before I commit.

One of these days...

[Racerbob]

It depends on what kind of tone you want. A few years ago I was at Tadol's place looking at a guitar he had listed. I was looking for one with a more mellow voice, a good bass and well balanced .

He ultimately brought out a SCGC with Adi/Koa, hardly the combination of wood likely to produce what I was looking for. But to my surprise it had exactly the smooth, strong full well defined bass with tone that didn't compete with the vocal range.

It was a 12 Fret 000 with more depth to the body. It had been configured by SCGC specifically for vocal accompaniment for a couple that sang together.

So you shouldn't make an assumption just based on the wood.

[Guitartanzon]

does my new mexican martin 000-12e koa have voting rights?

Its a koa veneer on outside (and inside guitar) with African Mahogany in middle of the sandwich. She looks beautuful and sound winderful, to me, anyway. I put Martin Monel retros on it, because of my hearing aids. The phospher Bronze Dadarro just exploded the mids and highs
and my hearing aids I wear were chirping.....The nickle monels toned it down and brought in a little more bass, my bad ears liked it better. Plus I put it on tonerite for seven days and bought the 100 buck liguid metal bridge pins. Maybe it was over kill and my hearing aids could not take it, ha.

The best guitar I ever owned, looks and sound, was a limited edition J 45 Koa/ adirondack top. Why I sold it I will never fully understand or forgive myself.

[Parlorman]

Of the two choices, I would go with Goodall, but lots of others do a fine job. I love my Koa bodied Froggy Bottom.

[eljay]

My Gibson Custom Shop koa Hummingbird be da shizzle!

[Wade Hampton]

I voted for Goodall because I’ve played at least three dozen koa Goodalls, both with spruce tops and all-koa, and only disliked one of them. Whereas I’ve never played a koa Taylor that I liked at all, again, both all-koa and topped with spruce. In my opinion Taylor really overbuilds its koa instruments.

I’ve really liked most of the dozen or so koa Collings guitars I’ve played, the two or three koa Santa Cruzes, and the one koa Froggy Bottom. Some of the very finest-sounding koa guitars I’ve played have been the three or four koa Franklin guitars I’ve played, dating back to the 1970’s when they were still being made in Moscow, Idaho.

It was the Franklin guitars that first alerted me to the musical possibilities of koa, long before I ever heard of Goodall guitars.

Another guitar builder who does an outstanding job with koa is a gentleman named Grimes, who lives in the Hawaiian Islands and whose first name escapes me now. They’re great instruments; I’ve been fortunate enough to have played three koa Grimes guitars.

Roy McAlister does an excellent job with koa, as well: the acoustic baritone guitar that he built for me out of koa with a Sitka spruce top is a superb instrument that I’ve been playing for almost twenty one years now and - I swear - it keeps sounding better every year.

Koa is also one of my favorite tonewoods for mountain dulcimers: I own three, all with spruce tops, one built by an unknown maker back in the 70’s and two built by Blue Lion, in 1984 and 2018 respectively.

So there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and while I voted for Goodall because they have the most consistent success getting koa to sound its best, I would probably prefer to get a Collings or a Martin D-42K or - dream of dreams - a 1970’s vintage koa Franklin OM before I’d get a Goodall, simply because those builders make guitars that are more firmly within the “Americana” style that my guitar playing is geared for.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[jrb715]

I have not played a Goodall in koa, but have played a number of Taylor koas. (There's always at least one in my local shop.) I find the Taylor koas all right, but not exceptional.

I have played four Collings koa guitars, and they have all been pretty sensational.

[colins]

I will second Wade's vote for Martin. An OM-42K is the finest Martin I have been lucky to own. Classic Martin sound but with the dry, woody flavour that koa brings. Still kind of wishing I hadn't sold it!

My other vote goes to Mike Baranik, who can use koa to build an amazing guitar for modern fingerstyle. Mine is a deep bodied 00 and it sounds great.

Here are the guitars in question, Martin then Baranik:

[Cool555]

Originally Posted by colins

I will second Wade's vote for Martin. An OM-42K is the finest Martin I have been lucky to own. Classic Martin sound but with the dry, woody flavour that koa brings. Still kind of wishing I hadn't sold it!

My other vote goes to Mike Baranik, who can use koa to build an amazing guitar for modern fingerstyle. Mine is a deep bodied 00 and it sounds great.

Here are the guitars in question, Martin then Baranik:

Wow! Gorgeous looking guitars! Some lucky person now owns the Martin OM-42K. Great that you still have the Baranik!