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Hawaiian Koa

Overview: A dense tropical hardwood, koa blends midrange focus with extra top-end brightness and chime. The more a koa guitar is played and opens up — especially an all-koa guitar — the more its midrange overtones add warmth and sweetness to its voice.

Origin:  Hawaii

Sound: Koa's tone profile blends the midrange of mahogany with the top end of maple. Due to its density, a new koa guitar tends to start out sounding a little bright and tight, somewhat like maple. But the more a koa guitar is played, the more the sound opens up, expanding the midrange and rewarding the player with a richer, sweeter, more resonant tone. A common mistake is when a bright player buys a koa guitar in part for its visual beauty, finds it to be too bright, and doesn't play it enough to allow the wood to warm up.

Goes Well With: Fingerstylists who play more with the pads of their fingers and tend to have a meatier touch. Bright players may want to experiment with different pick materials to produce a warmer tone.

 

Koa Featured Models

Back and Side Woods Overview

The hardwoods used for a guitar’s back and sides (the same species is used for both) contribute rigidity and stability to an acoustic guitar body. This helps generate more sustain from notes as they ring out. The back and sides woods also emphasize certain resonant frequencies in ways that add unique sonic colors and textures to the guitar’s overall sound. 

Body Woods and Acoustic Guitar Tone

Along with body shape and top woods, the woods used for the back and sides of an acoustic guitar play a key role in coloring the guitar’s voice. Hardwoods, such as rosewood, mahogany, koa and maple, are exclusively used. They provide the supportive shell of the guitar body, and their hardness and density add the rigidity that helps generate sustain from the notes.

Explore All Acoustic Features