Koa wood for a MM bass

[JayDawg]

I was just thinking about my Bongos and other MM basses and the different woods they are made from and how each one has different tonal characteristics. I know with the Bongo's, they are made of basswood to help save on weight but it also provides for a great tone to the basses too. I was wondering though about Koa wood and how it compares? Several years ago I wanted to get another bass made by a company that uses Koa wood in their basses as an option. I love the looks of the wood and played a few of their Koa basses and like the tones as they seemed a little bit warmer to me and the wood also seemed pretty light too. I was wondering EBMM ever did any of their basses in Koa wood? I know the JP guitars this year will have some made of Koa and I think that is awesome but it then got me wondering about the bass side if anything has ever been done with them in the past?

 

[jlepre]

I believe they had some BFR basses with Koa tops. Pretty expensive I believe.

 

[MadMatt]

I have a solid Koa Ukulele and although it is a beautiful wood both, sonically and visually but unbelievably expensive due to the rareness of true Hawaiian Koa. I dont even went to think of what a solid Koa Bass would cost.

 

[laneline]

I believe they had some BFR basses with Koa tops. Pretty expensive I believe.

Yeah I'm pretty sure there was a run at GC of SR's and that possibly were 20th anniversary models. I would think they were Koa tops with a different body wood. they were pricey as I balked, but man they were smokin'. The JP has a Koa top also.

 

[jlepre]

That's right they were sapphire blue I believe.

 

[ivbenaplayin]

They did make some BFR 20th SR5 basses w/koa tops in a tobacco color you can check out in the locked sticky thread "Official Ball Family Reserve"... I often go through the bass porn pics and think "what if..." and "if only..." It also tells where they were shipped to originally... Unfortunately my address wasn't included on any of them.

 

[Golem]

`

Tried out one of those F3nder "artiste models" with a
Koa body. Don't recall the signature artiste's name but
it was a cool tone ... just too expensive. I have a Koa
topped swamp ash body Warwick that I lurrrv and I've
had the same ax with just a maple top, and found the
latter was pretty easy to let go of.

Once upon a time, I couldn't/wouldn't bleeb that top
wood [aka caps] made a significant diffrence ... but
I've encountered enuf examples where the top wood
was the ONLY difference between basses that really
did sound very different from each other.

I never doubted the contrbution of FB wood ... that
just seemed so intuitively bleebable, since thaz the
wood you actually play upon ... but top wood took
me some convincement. Now I'm a bleeber


`

 

[dedmouse]

I have a 5 string bass that I bought new about 20 years ago made from solid Koa (body and neck) and has an ebony fret board. I love it but the sound is quite dark...I tried EB flats on it a few years back but I ended up putting rounds on it again...it was just too dark with the flats on it.

Koa is a beautiful wood but getting increasingly rare in large enough pieces to make solid Koa instruments. From what I have heard, it only grows in Hawaii and they can only harvest trees that have fallen naturally.