enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Koa blanca

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>Lutherie >>

Page: [1]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

erictjie

Posts: 163
Joined: Apr. 11 2011

enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Koa blanca

Hi all
i am in the market looking for a flamed Hawaiian Koa blanca. Has anybody play or seen one? i like the firey look of the Koa. what is sound like ?

eric

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 14 2012 11:02:42

Stephen Eden

Posts: 914
Joined: Apr. 12 2008
From: UK

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

I nearly had the chance to build one of these but it ended up as Madagascan RW instead. My first impressions were that being somewhat less dense than rosewood the sound would be closer to a cypress blanca.

I can't help you find one though I wouldn't imagine that many if any factories are building them. So it maybe a luthier jobby

_____________________________

Classical and Flamenco Guitars www.EdenGuitars.co.uk

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 14 2012 15:59:50

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

A guitar made with Koa, will normally be called a Negra. Blanca means white and you use the word for flamenco guitars with whitish wood like cypress or maple.

The Koa I´ve had in hand was a lot closer to rosewoods than to cypress both in weight and taptone, so the sound will be negra and since the wood is brown, it´ll be called a negra anyways

_____________________________

Blog: http://news-from-the-workshop.blogspot.com/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 14 2012 16:16:29

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)

quote:

The Koa I´ve had in hand was a lot closer to rosewoods than to cypress both in weight and taptone, so the sound will be negra and since the wood is brown, it´ll be called a negra anyways

Anders,

We have a wood on the Mainland called Black Acacia, it is related to the Koa of Hawaii, some even call it "California Koa" ....a joke. I've built with it and seen a few other flamenco guitars with this material. I have to say it sounds more blanca than negra to me, but still not totally blanca. When it is worked thin it does not have the glassy tap tone of a rosewood at all. it is dark and thuddy compared to the bell ring of denser rosewoods. But then again wood varies from flitch to flitch.

I would not call it a negra or a blanca, but a rosa or a cafe' or a marron. It also sounds to my ear something in between a negra and a blanca. How do you say auburn hair in Spanish? Or maybe that hair color chestnut brown? That first seven string I built was Black Acacia and it does not really sound negra either.

Not arguing just adding,my two centavos.

_____________________________

https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 0:37:30

C. Vega

Posts: 379
Joined: Jan. 16 2004

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

Acacia melanoxylon, commonly known as Australian or Tasmanian blackwood is also a close relative of koa.
There are a few luthier suppliers who sell it and it's generally cheaper than koa.

GSI has had a few koa Condes that dated from 2005-2006. Your guess is as good as mine as to who actually made them. They're in the "Archive" on their website.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 1:11:24

Sean

Posts: 672
Joined: Jan. 20 2011
From: Canada

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

Aaron Green made a beautiful looking koa flamenco guitar once. Also as mentioned the GSI stocked Conde with a video of Grisha playing it.

Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px

Attachment (1)

_____________________________

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 3:03:49

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to estebanana)

quote:

I would not call it a negra or a blanca, but a rosa or a cafe' or a marron.

Stephen, you may call whatever thing whatever you like. The division into Blancas and Negras has nothing to do with tone. Its looks and here in Spain a Koa guitar would be a Negra. After all, its their culture and I think its correct to respect it.

Spanish devide everything into two. They still do so and its very obvious everywhere: Madrid><Barcelona. Calor><Frio. PP><PSOE (Conservative >< socialist). One of the more interesting ones. They are very much in favor of laws and justice but they dont have to follow the laws themselves.

This with putting instruments strictly into two boxes you only see in flamenco. Classical and steel strings dont suffer that.

_____________________________

Blog: http://news-from-the-workshop.blogspot.com/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 7:14:28

Stephen Eden

Posts: 914
Joined: Apr. 12 2008
From: UK

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

I would probably call it a negra too but still it's not overly relavent to the topic.

Maybe you have some very light IRW and comparing it to some very heavy Koa? Or I have some very heavy IRW and compared it to very light Koa? Its still not as light Cypress though.

Also I assume you would call a maple guitar a blanca? Koa and maple have very similar densities still lower than IRW. So there you go we can say a Koa guitar could Sound Very similar to a Maple Blanca

_____________________________

Classical and Flamenco Guitars www.EdenGuitars.co.uk

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 9:34:38

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

A maple guitar is normally called a Blanca or a Maple blanca.

Again, its not the sound that matters but the color of the instrument before putting the finish on. So a black colored cypress guitar would still be a blanca. Just like Real Madrid are called "merengues" even when they play in black or dark blue. (Merengue is a totally white sweet thing made of puffed up egg white and sugar)
I´ve lived here more than 10 years and I´ve learnt to accept that they are like that.

_____________________________

Blog: http://news-from-the-workshop.blogspot.com/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 10:23:17

aarongreen

Posts: 367
Joined: Jan. 16 2004

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

Thanks for posting a photo of my guitar Sean! That set of Koa was the most absurdly beautiful set I ever laid eyes on. The neck is flamed Spanish Cedar which was a nice compliment. In all honesty the guitar is a classical that is fit with pegs. The shape is my Romanillos inspired shape, which is to say I traced a Romanillos and then altered the curves to match my standard plantilla.

I have a few sets of Koa that are quite nice but in my experience with the wood, as a raw material it is closer to a dense mahogany (at least the sets I have) than anything else. In the end it's it's own thing. It's beautiful and builds a very nice guitar. I don't think labels like blanca or negra are imprortant, if anything misleading. Saying that a koa guitar is a blanca gives one impression, saying it's a negra gives another and yet its still the same guitar.

For me, flamenco guitars are cypress. That gives me the sound I most associate with flamenco. I build negras and I don't make them like I make my classicals but what they bring to the table tends to be (for me) more sustain and bloom to the sound. Not muddy, which I wouldn't want in any guitar but the lines are definitely blurry

aaron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 12:22:44

Don Dionisio

Posts: 360
Joined: Feb. 16 2011
From: Durham, NC

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

Aaron,
Wow, what a beautiful guitar! Why more people don't talk you up
on this forum is a mystery to me. Your experience with some of the
world's finest instruments (Hauser, Fleta, Esteso, Barbero, etc.) alone
is mindboggling, not to mention your own wonderful creations. Of course,
I own a classical by Aaron-just a little biased, eh?
Best to you,
Dennis

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 14:58:34

beno

Posts: 881
Joined: Nov. 3 2006
From: Hungary

RE: enquiry about flamed Hawaiian Ko... (in reply to erictjie)

The brilliant Hungarian gipsy musician Ferenc Snétberger plays a Koa 'blangra'

it was made specially for Him. I've also heard it live in a relatively small hall on a concert. I think it has wonderful warm and full tone, but sure One could make a guitar with it that also has a some more raw power to it.

Another one:

The look of this wood is just beautiful by the way.

_____________________________

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 15 2012 17:21:02