big island koa concert (bi-kto-cts)

uas kicked in badly when i saw this beauty for sale…

specifications

body: all solid (curly) koa, bookmatched back and sides
binding/trim: (faux) tortoise and mahogany/maple rope style
neck: mahogany (2 pieces)
fretboard: ebony, black binding, 20 frets (14 to body), fretboard and side markers on 5, 7, 10 and 12
bridge: ebony
nut and saddle: bone, compensated saddle
sealed geared (14:1) chrome tuners with solid koa buttons
gloss finish
strings: came with white nylons (aquila?), swapped that for a set of fluorocarbon
weight: 582g
length: 62cm (~24″), body 28.5cm
width: lower bout 21.5cm, upper bout 16.7cm
fretboard width: 1st fret 37mm, 12th fret 45mm
string spacing at nut: 28mm (from g to a string)
height: 6.5cm
scale: 38cm
dated 130312 (12 march 2013)
serial # 130053

first hands-on impressions

a real bummer with stunning flawless looks – as you would expect from solid koa in that price range (at the time of writing this post i saw this uke for 749€). i immediately swapped the nylon strings (most probably aquila) for fluorocarbons – even though the sound was already impressive with the original strings. during tuning up the fluoros i had difficulties to stop playing, even being constantly out of tune i already loved the ringing trebles and long sustain. i think i will definitely try low-g here as well after playing around in re-entrant tuning for a while. or i swap once more for something like worth bm or d’addario (custom extruded ej65 or even rectified ej53) for a mellower tone; after a few hours the fluoros almost seem a bit too bright (might just be a matter of mood and outside weather though).

the neck is comfortably wide and amazingly flat (or thin?), action is really low and intonation appears spot on all around the neck.