ONE piece solid KOA electric guitar. Has anyone made one?

[ChrisVH]

I got lucky and was able to acquire a solid billet of quartersawn 'unicorn grade' flamed koa that is large enough for a 1 pc strat or tele. I will be sending off to have shaped and readied for me to finish later this week. Just curious if anyone here has made SOLID body Koa S or T style, and what their experience has been with that? I know koa can be quite heavy, but that doesn't bother me, since I don't gig out, and usually play sitting down. When searching the interwebs, I couldn't find much for references to solid body koa electrics... only those made with koa tops, and curious if this is due to weight, cost, or something else? T.I.A.

 

[stratamania]

Hope your body turns out well.

The Suhr Reb Beach has used for some time is solid Koa, quite a few bodies from a couple of decades or more ago would be Koa. Schecter Van Nuys era Dream Machines would sometimes use solid Koa.

Nowadays, solid Koa is something you will find much less often, due to cost, less availability etc.

The last solid Koa, I saw on here was a Z Bass body, though the photos seem to be gone.

Figured Koa Z-Bass

Mmmmmmmmm. You guys are gooooooood. I've said "this is my last one" several times now. I don't think I can top this one, actually. Probably going all black on hardware, although this is actually the first time I think I seriously considered gold. Taking the pau ferro/ebony neck...

unofficialwarmoth.com

 

[triple jim]

Welcome to the board, Chris!

 

[bagman67]

Carvin was making solid koa bodies into the 2000's, and I'm sure there are photos if you're interested.

 

[ghotiphry]

Weird how the photos are gone. That was me with the z bass. The body is the lightest I own at under four pounds. And the forum doesn't seem to like my links anymore.

https://imgur.com/ZDnBNt2

 

[Strat Avenger]

Too heavy. My latest Warmoth build (even though I haven't completed the 2 before it) is inspired by the Suhr Reb Beach model.
It has a koa lam-top which is much lighter than a solid koa body, and the neck is roasted maple with pau ferro fretboard, which is lighter than a solid pau ferro neck. Same neck and fretboard profile (C-shape .800-.850", 9.5-14" radius) and same frets (6115).

 

[ghotiphry]

Most bass bodies range from 5 to 8 pounds, and can go into double digits. I've done many bass guitars with Warmoth bodies. This koa body is feather light by comparison. YMMV.

 

[ChrisVH]

Too heavy. My latest Warmoth build (even though I haven't completed the 2 before it) is inspired by the Suhr Reb Beach model.
It has a koa lam-top which is much lighter than a solid koa body, and the neck is roasted maple with pau ferro fretboard, which is lighter than a solid pau ferro neck. Same neck and fretboard profile (C-shape .800-.850", 9.5-14" radius) and same frets (6115).

You have a Koa lam top, but what is the body wood? I'd think the body wood would be the primary driver for weight in your case.

 

[ChrisVH]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Google searches for 'solid body koa electric' was just too broad to be useful when searching. The Suhr and Carvin references are great and I feel much better now, knowing this has been done before successfully. I was told this specific piece of wood was from higher altitude and dense, so I'm prepared for it to be a bit on the heavy side.

 

[Strat Avenger]

You have a Koa lam top, but what is the body wood? I'd think the body wood would be the primary driver for weight in your case.

Roasted swamp ash (I guess I should have mentioned that).

 

[NedRyerson]

Weird how the photos are gone. That was me with the z bass. The body is the lightest I own at under four pounds. And the forum doesn't seem to like my links anymore.

Looks like there was a proxy being used to access external photo shares (like Imgur) that was for the previous forum software. All such images from before August 2022 would be broken now.

(and some of us work in places where sites like Imgur are blocked by enterprise content filters, so I can't see those anyway! )

 

[stratamania]

Imgur hosted photos were working on this forum software previously. It appears the options for posting from Imgur have changed.

See this thread.

Why am I having a hard time posting pictures all of a sudden?

So I'm posting pictures in the same way that I always have (posting to Imgur and then pasting the BBC code into my forum posts), but suddenly they're not working. How do I fix that? My pictures are working fine on other forums...

unofficialwarmoth.com

 

[docteurseb]

I bought several Strat ones years ago, they were all 4-5lbs, not lightweight but not that heavy. Never got to build any guitar with them though.
On the plus side typical natural finishes you would use for Koa are going to be a fair bit more lightweight than most a solid finishes (metallic/pearl in particular).

 

[stratamania]

Here is another one I remembered about.

Aloha from Hawaii

BODY Soloist Extra light 1 piece Hawaiian Koa Body AAAAA Flame Hawaiian Koa Top NECK Warmoth Pro AAAAA Pau Ferro & fingerboard -1 5/8”nut + 24 ¾” scale Warhead headstock 24 frets Standard slim contour Compound radius 6115 SS frets Tru Oil finish HARDWARE Floyd Rose trem Gotoh tuners mini...

unofficialwarmoth.com

 

[ChrisVH]

Just got the first Koa body back from Warmoth. This is a single, solid piece. Came in not too heavy, but certainly not a lightweight either, at 4 lbs 11 oz. The preliminary plan is to go with a polymerized tung oil finish, but on the fence about maybe making a brown burst with some dye, similar to this Suhr: https://distinctiveguitar.com/electrics/suhr/suhr-modern-custom-koa-brown-burst/

Have one more piece that will get cut yet, and have that configured for H - S - H , with rear rout--- so I also have the option of going S - S - S (with pickguard) down the road, should I want to take it in that direction.

 

[teleme01]

just wow

 

[Rick]

Koa, tonewood of the gods.

 

[Lbpesq]

IIRC, the old Travis Bean guitars with the Aluminum neck came with an all-Koa body … and they were heavy!

Bill, tgo

 

[bagman67]

Well, that's one of the prettiest pieces of unfinished lumber I've seen in a long while. Congratulations.

 

[ChrisVH]

Coat #2 of polymerized Tung Oil... soaking-in for 30 mins.