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Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | Koa Uke
Looks to be very good craftsmanship, and nice materials.
Any thoughts? |
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August 2006
Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | its a beautiful uke.im starting to like the looks of koa..jason |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | A tenor, Dave, how are those tuned? |
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November 2003
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | not, my dog has fleas? |
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January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Tenor is tuned the same as soprano and concert. GCEA low to high, with the G an octave up. Only difference from soprano/concert is that the C is sometimes a wound string. Because of the longer scale than a sop/concert, the string tension on a tenor is pretty high which gives it a more clear tone in my opinion and less "toy like".
This ebay post does not say for sure, but this uke may not be solid koa. Some i nthis price range are laminated koa. OK for the price, but not in the league of a solid koa ukulele.
Dave |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | I have not played an ukulele by this maker, however, from what I see here and at this price, I would venture to say it is a very good value. I believe the koa to be solid and not a laminate. The fact that the builder is using iron wood (which is a type of very dense and incredibly hard pine, imported to Hawaii from Australia and planted along our shores as windbreaks) should prove to be a very stabile wood for the neck and the bridge. In my experience, this is the first time I have heard of a builder using the iron wood. A sawblade takes a beating from this stuff! It probably adds several ounces of weight to the instrument too so I wonder how the balance is affected? The craftsmanship looks to be very good.
Randy (on the Big Island) |
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Location: big island | Whoops! The ironwood is just the fretboard and bridge, not the neck. My bad!
Randy |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Ironwood's a Pine??? i.e. Conifer i.e softwood???
I was thinking it might be a wood called Ipe... which is often called
"Ironwood" |
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Posts: 5575
Location: big island | The ironwood tree here in Hawaii is the same as the Casuarina tree from Australia. It resembles a conifer in many ways and its leaves are evergreen needles. The tree also produces cones. Whether it is technically a "pine" tree or not, I suppose wikipedia could tell us.
Randy |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | I emailed the seller. He confirms that only solid koa is used in their instruments.
Randy |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | There are different kinds of "iron wood". The one I'm familiar with is pau ferro from South America, for the fretboard on my parts caster. It's a heavy wood, looks like rosewood, with a tone between ebony and rosewood, maple like, and a feel like ebony.
Speaking of tone woods, I was horseback riding in Oaxaca, and I asked our guide, what they did with the ebony from the ebony forest we were riding in, and he told me, oh we burn it for firewood. So there you go. Maybe we can burn some of those distressed wanker strats from the other post. |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | There is a company here (Pine Solutions) that sells treated pine that goes by the product name of 'Ironwood' and it's just that - treated pine. My property is covered in Casuarina, and it's almost as light as balsa when its dried out.
Australian 'Ironwood' is a hardwood - Erythrophleum chlorostachys. (It could be a eucalypt, I'm not sure.) Don't lick the bridge, Ironwood is toxic.
Here's an excerpt from the 'Wagiman Online Dictionary'. (Australian aboriginal dictionary)
The ironwood tree has many uses. The wood is very hard and heavy. It can be used for fence posts, throwing sticks, hook spears and fighting sticks, and it lasts a long time. The gum can be eaten; it is sweet and sticky, like toffee. The leaves can be used as fish poison. After the leaves have been placed in a waterhole, the water cannot be drunk until the waterhole has been flushed out by heavy rain. The smoke from burning the green leaves is used in the cleansing stages of funeral ceremonies. Finally, the leaves can also be used medicinally. They are heated on a fire and placed directly against any painful area and held there. This relieves the pain. When the leaves are heated or burnt they make a crackling sound, and the healing power of this tree is linked to the crackling noise as it releases energy.
AND you can make uke bridges with it!!! |
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March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | Interesting. So, with ironwood being a "heavy" wood, would it weigh down the sound of the Koa a bit by using that as the bridge? On such a small soundboard surface, I'd imagine any external factors would play a huge role in the end sound. |
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July 2006
Posts: 18
Location: Seattle | Four strings, four fingers. How zen is that? |
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Tuppy (or anyone else), have you seen this?