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I love Koa... (Now with better pics!)


Travis

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Hello. My name is Travis and I’m a Koa-holic. 

From an aesthetic standpoint I think Koa might be my absolute favorite wood for the top of a guitar. I’ve seen some koa bodies (1 piece and 2 piece) that were pretty cool but I have to tell you, the tops that are out there are pretty spectacular. 

Of course, this all started with my ‘94 Mirage. I picked up a Mirage II with a pretty sweet koa top a little bit ago. Ever since then I’ve been scouring the intra-webs for anything and everything koa. The Hamer koa Studios make my pants tight. I was looking at some Suhr Classic T’s with chambered bodies and koa tops that are drool worthy. 

I think I might just resign myself to amassing a collection of koa topped beauties and then just sit and stare at them all day and night. 

I recognize I might have a problem. First, I don’t care if I do. Second, I know that y’all will just enable me and that’s why I love it here. 

That is all...

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Just in case some haven’t seen them and because this thread is “worthless without pics”....

My Mirage sisters...

 

0B5B7872-0C4D-4625-802C-885FB77C5010.jpeg

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                                                                        KOA is indeed a beautiful wood and I have come very close to owning 2 guitars made from it, those Mirages are beautiful!

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Yeah, I don’t know how Hamer came across so much good Koa for the mirages. I’ve seen some pretty crazy examples of flamed Koa on this board and elsewhere on the Internet. I’d put mine on the upper end of medium when it comes to some of the flame I’ve seen. But even some of the less figured Koa still looks great. 

Gibson did a run of 150 Koa topped Les Pauls a few years ago and none of the ones I’ve seen could hold a candle to what Hamer produced. 

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My Koa Mirage has been my #1 for 20 years.  

 

But I didn’t know they ever made any Koa Studios! 😮

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Those are great, Travis. You gotta get them in the sun for better pictures, though. B)

I love how much the same guitar can flip just by the angle it's at:100_4928small.jpg100_4927small.jpg

It's the only Koa I've owned. The randomness of each top is the draw for me. Beautiful stuff.

 

 

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7 hours ago, draelyc said:

My Koa Mirage has been my #1 for 20 years.  

 

But I didn’t know they ever made any Koa Studios! 😮

They only made 9 of them. Wraptail bridges with dot fretboards and no binding. I’ve only seen pictures of two of them, #4 and #5. I’ve never had a wraptail bridge for some unknown reason but a Koa studio would be a fantastic intro into that wonderful world of “intonation is for pussies”...

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5 hours ago, hamerhead said:

Those are great, Travis. You gotta get them in the sun for better pictures, though. B)

I love how much the same guitar can flip just by the angle it's at:100_4928small.jpg100_4927small.jpg

It's the only Koa I've owned. The randomness of each top is the draw for me. Beautiful stuff.

 

 

I used to think I had one of the better Mirage tops until I saw that picture of yours a while back. I think I’ll be able to make mine “pop” a lot more in better light, though.

Now that the weather in Chicagoland is starting to warm up I’m planning on taking them outside for some proper pictures soon. Of course, it’s supposed to drop to 20 and snow tomorrow, so I’ll wait just a little bit longer...

 

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5 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

Travis, have you made a pilgrimage to Hawaii yet? 

I have not. It’s on the list, tho. 

As an aside, my wife and I have a goal to go to at least one brewery in all 50 states. We hit Alaska last year so we’ve got one of the 2 big trips out of the way...

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These are all well and good, but there's one for sale on CL here for $2k that I don't think any of you will be able to resist. The painstaking amount of detail in the photos is worth the price alone. 🤩

https://miami.craigslist.org/brw/msg/d/hollywood-usa-hamer-mirage-2/6862122354.html

USA Hamer Mirage 2 - $2000 (Hollywood)

1996 Hamer Mirage 2 w/ KOA there is none like this one check for yourself “Bad 2 The Bone”.

 

You tell me you're not ready to start throwing money after seeing these pics? I don't think so.

Actual ad pics. In order.

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It gets better. Yes it does. And you didn't think that was possible!  

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Buy! Buy! Buy!!!!

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1 hour ago, Tortious said:

Ok, I too love koa.

Anderson Hollow Drop Top. Very light. Sounds incredible. ❤️

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Ooh, I forgot about the Anderson drop tops. Very nice. I bet that one does sound incredible. 

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Some really beautiful guitars in this thread.

I love Koa, too. Although I don't own a single guitar made with Koa... I'm always looking for a nice Koa top wood for a self made guitar but this wood seems to be hard to get.

There's a Mirage I available here in Germany that caught my attention but I think I've got just too many guitars (did I really type that?) and I'm just building a new one with a nice flame maple top...

How are these Mirage I guitars? How does the neck feel (slim/fat)? And what about that little switch? I read it overrides the tone pot, right? Damn, have to get rid of GAS.

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Carvin made a crapload of Koa electrics in the '80's and '90's, that might be a cheaper/easier route to getting a guitar with Koa, if you're lusting for that kind of eye candy.  Personally, I can take Koa or leave it, I don't think there's enough Koa in a solidbody top to make a noticeable difference in the sound...besides, putting a Koa top on a mahogany body seems kinda redundant to me.  The grain of Koa tends to be too wavy for my taste, and if someone wanted a solid Koa top with even flame throughout (not just random figure here and there in patches like most Koa seems to be) like maple, it'd very likely cost big bucks.

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Love Koa.  I've got a Pono Concert Ukulele in Koa I picked up in Maui many moons ago, and my Taylor K65ce that is simply a tone monster as well as beautiful...

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_2390.jpgUNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_23a6.jpg

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6 hours ago, thoro said:

Some really beautiful guitars in this thread.

I love Koa, too. Although I don't own a single guitar made with Koa... I'm always looking for a nice Koa top wood for a self made guitar but this wood seems to be hard to get.

There's a Mirage I available here in Germany that caught my attention but I think I've got just too many guitars (did I really type that?) and I'm just building a new one with a nice flame maple top...

How are these Mirage I guitars? How does the neck feel (slim/fat)? And what about that little switch? I read it overrides the tone pot, right? Damn, have to get rid of GAS.

The Mirage I was my introduction to Hamer. Bought a ‘94 new in January ‘95 and still have it today. It’s the one on the left in the pic I posted above. 

The neck is a nice medium C shape and the blended heel feels just like my neck thru Charvel if not even better. I prefer a thicker neck but the contour is just so comfortable I don’t notice that it’s slimmer, while still being nice and round.  Definitely not flat like an Ibanez Wizard...

The little switch on the Mirage I is a “blower” switch which puts the bridge pickup full blast with no volume or tone control/interference. It’s cool to use as an instant lead boost or to do some cool on/off toggles a la Randy Rhoads by setting the 5-way switch to a different pickup with the volume all the way down and toggling back and forth between the full on bridge and whatever else is set to silent. 

Seems like around here the Mirage is either love or hate with few people in between. For me, it’s a love. 

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My Mirage I has been my #1 for about 20 years now.  Always keep coming back to it; it just feels like home, and there are very few styles of music it cannot cover, and cover well.  IMHO, of course.  I did have mine routed for a full sized humbucker in the bridge, as y'all can see from the pics, and while I sometimes wish it still had the look of the unmodded guitar, in terms of overall versatility it was a good choice for me.  If I could only keep one guitar out of my (admittedly small) collection, it would be my Mirage I Koa.

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On 4/12/2019 at 8:11 PM, Travis said:

Hello. My name is Travis and I’m a Koa-holic. 

From an aesthetic standpoint I think Koa might be my absolute favorite wood for the top of a guitar. I’ve seen some koa bodies (1 piece and 2 piece) that were pretty cool but I have to tell you, the tops that are out there are pretty spectacular. 

Of course, this all started with my ‘94 Mirage. I picked up a Mirage II with a pretty sweet koa top a little bit ago. Ever since then I’ve been scouring the intra-webs for anything and everything koa. The Hamer koa Studios make my pants tight. I was looking at some Suhr Classic T’s with chambered bodies and koa tops that are drool worthy. 

I think I might just resign myself to amassing a collection of koa topped beauties and then just sit and stare at them all day and night. 

I recognize I might have a problem. First, I don’t care if I do. Second, I know that y’all will just enable me and that’s why I love it here. 

That is all...

Travis,

I gotta admit, Koa is certainly not a bad way to go!

As for the enabling part, be warned:  some places refer to various types of enabling as a "slippery slope".   

With the HFC its evolved to an art form and is now just a damn cliff.    :lol:

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