This must've been done before, but my limited search skills can't find it, if it has!
I'm shamleslessly craving pretty guitar pics to drool over, plus I've been considering a Koa GS-Mini forever.
This is definitely a style-over-substance question, but as Koa seems to be a particularly unique and picturesque wood, I'm curious as to what people love in a good koa top?
I know some love the blond stripe, while some don't — then there's wild-and-curly vs. even grains, and lighter vs darker wood tones. All down to personal preference!
So, what type of Koa top floats your boat?
I'll start off: I think the most beautiful one I've seen so far (totally open to change my mind!) is probably
this one, which is the promo photo GuitarGuitar used for their competition to win a GS-Mini (in my dreams! I wonder if the winner won this actual guitar?). I love a bold blond stripe (although this one is very thin), but
the curls in the grain and the warm-looking tones are just gorgeous!
Over to you... please can you share a pic or link to the best koa top you've ever seen?
Comments
Sadly, most of the small number of Koa tops I do see around the traps have been visually butchered by awful black sunbursts. (Taylor hang your head in shame. What an awful thing to do to a beautiful timber!)
I fell in lust with a all-Koa Taylor a few months back. It was nothing special visually, pleasant enough and not spoiled by idiotic black paint, but not a patch on that magnificent one @CountryDave posted above. But it was a real joy to play with a lovely warmth and just enough percussive attack to keep it interesting, and I filed it away on my "must have one of these one day!" list - pretty close to the top of the list, actually.
That one has since sold and I've seen one or two others advertised around and about but the doubts have got me. What if that particular guitar was the gem, not that model of all-Koa Taylor? I'm thinking now that I can't simply order one, I need to wait until someone has got one in stock and go and play the exact one I'm going to buy. Or not buy if it doesn't thrill me the way the first one did. (Unless I get as lucky as @SixStringSage and see the first one second-hand.)
As for @Pickie's example ... well no. Lovely looking bit of timber, but it looks like a crazy choice for a top. Taylor know far more about making guitars than I do, but the thought of grain patterns like that on the one part of the guitar which has more structural stress on it than any other fills me with dread. (I do note that they have at least got some straight grain near the centre, that is a mercy.) I love that timber, yes, but I'd want to see it on a back where the stresses are far lower and you can get away with any bit of timber cut any way (within reason).
Love to see more pictures in this thread. To that end, @malcolmkindness if you want to, email me a picture and I'll post it up here. Shoot me a PM and I'll reply with my email.
Cole Clark make some alarming-looking tops too. Here is a mild example - I've seen others much more pronounced.
This is my old 12-string, which I bought new in 2020 and sold in 2022. The top is Bunya Pine, back and sides Blackwood.
In general, the conventional wisdom is that grain pattern makes little or no difference to tone. Plain maple, for example, will sound the same as a spectacular piece of flamed maple. But, of course, we all love pretty timber. Later on I'll see if I can't dig out a shot of my Maton WA May (the guitar I traded the 12-string on, as it happens). It has a Sitka Spruce top but I think you will enjoy the lovely flamed Blackwood back.
Oh, and @malcolmkindness has my email now: when he wakes up he will send me pictures of his Koa Martin, which I'll post in this thread.
Now that is a wow! from me.
It offers little protection for the top and the edge of the soundhole against clumsy strummers, but is perfectly located for fingerpicking players who drop one or two fingers onto the top to aid precision.
As a fingerpicker, I require the second type to avoid wearing through the finish on the tops of my guitars and wish is was more common.
Ah, interesting. I'd never heard of that.