1921 Martin AK - All Koa!

[blufish]

Tonight I got my hands on an all koa 1921 Martin AK. I've been itching for both an oval hole and an American made mandolin for some time now, and this fits the bill. Not to mention I'm a big fan of antiques. I love the sound!

These are the pictures from the classified listing, but I'll try to post some better ones tomorrow when I have some better lighting.

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[mandophil(e)]

That is a REALLY cool mandolin. I didn't know they made a koa model (although it does make sense since they were making a lot of koa guitars around that time). I wonder if that was a custom order. Any feedback on sound would be of interest.

[vic-victor]

Certainly looks cool, but making the top of hardwood is IMHO a silly idea. Same applys to all mahogany instruments.

[trevor]

Koa and mahogany tops work well enough on guitars but I'm not so sure about mandolins. How does it sound?

[EdHanrahan]

The Hawaiian made & highly regarded Kamaka ukuleles have been all koa since forever. And see the latest (Winter '12) issue of Taylor Guitar's "Wood and Steel" for matching pairs of all-koa guitars & ukes. If they sound 10% as good as they LOOK, they gotta be winners!

[Jim Garber]

Martin used all koa for their guitars, ukes and mandolins during the tail end of the Hawaiian craze. I believe that all their guitars were meant for Hawaiian style playing. The ukes were successful because they were very lightly braced. I don;t believe that they made any koa instruments back them with spruce tops. They did much later, I think, in the 1980s with spruce topped/koa back guitars.

[blufish]

Took some day light photos this morning to give a better idea of how she looks (attached).

As far as sound, it's very open, echoy, and resonant, like one would expect from an oval hole, with fairly even volume across all courses. I don't think my playing would provide a good enough sampling of it's sound, but I did find a couple videos on the 'tube that demonstrate it fairly well.

(Edit: Not sure if the youtube embedding worked properly, so here are the links as well)

Martin 1928 AK Mandolin Demo @ House of Musical Traditions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pguDh_SJ3c8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pguDh_SJ3c8

Achille Bocus playing Picolla Gavoltta By Raffaele Calace on a 1923 Martin AK Mandolin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2TOF7oO5iw)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2TOF7oO5iw

[JEStanek]

I bet it sounds lovely. The Mid Mo all Mahogany mandolins I played all had rich warm voices. Sweet catch!

Jamie

[Jake Wildwood]

As someone who's worked on a half dozen or so mahogany (and one koa) cant-top flatbacks from the '20s... I can tell you the sound is just as good as with spruce. I'd say even better because you get more mid-range cut vs. bottom end woody-tubbiness and the trebles are smoothed off juuuust right.

[blufish]

That sounds about right, Jake. While I'm not experienced enough to qualify/quantify the sound myself, after playing this beauty all day, I can hear exactly what you're talking about.

Man do my fingers hurt... it's been a while since that's happened! Which reminds me.. this instrument appears to have had a refret at some point in it's life, if my understing that these originally had bar frets is correct. It now has nice round T-frets. I am not complaining.

[vic-victor]

Still doesn't make sense to me, especially when it comes to choosing the instrument. I'd think twice before buying a hardwood top one. The top is supposed to be made of soft wood to vibrate better. I agree though that in case of still strings (both in guitars and mandolins) it is not as important as with classical guitars. It also depends on how well the instrument built (and we can't fail Martin in this department). I have a cheap laminated mando that I have chosen from 20 or so similar ones that sounded way better than all the others made at the same factory. Very loud and bright. But still, it maybe gives the same crisp and loudness, but when it comes to overtones hardwood top is not as good.

[Jake Wildwood]

Still doesn't make sense to me, especially when it comes to choosing the instrument. I'd think twice before buying a hardwood top one. The top is supposed to be made of soft wood to vibrate better. I agree though that in case of still strings (both in guitars and mandolins) it is not as important as with classical guitars. It also depends on how well the instrument built (and we can't fail Martin in this department). I have a cheap laminated mando that I have chosen from 20 or so similar ones that sounded way better than all the others made at the same factory. Very loud and bright. But still, it maybe gives the same crisp and loudness, but when it comes to overtones hardwood top is not as good.

The idea that hardwood is inferior to softwood tops is a pretty steep over-generalization.

As anyone who's played old Martin 15 or 17 series guitars (all mahogany) can attest, they're great instruments -- just different. One can also reduce some of the bracing on a hardwood-topped instrument which means the tone can open up in different ways from a spruce-topped instrument, though for the most part hog-topped instruments were built essentially the same as the spruce ones when we're talking vintage.

And as far as the quest for "tone" goes -- many players prefer mahogany top guitars because the tone is different -- (generally) more balanced, a little creamier on the midrange, and scooped on the high and lows. This provides a certain kind of very plain response that suits many players' styles and has given some folks their "own tone."

There's no objective "better" anything when it comes to instrument making. It's almost entirely in the ear of the beholder as to what's "good" and as so often is the case -- one instrument played by one person can sound really lousy played by another. Diversity is the spice of life and all that. :)

[brunello97]

I don't know, Victor, I've got a 60s Gibson LGO (which I don't play often enough anymore.) Nice guitar. I know they are somewhat cultish in their appeal but I have really enjoyed mine and I know a dedicated following remains. Jake's "Creamy" might just be the technical term I'd be searching for. I'd love to play one of these koa Martin's sometime. I've had a few Martin spruce top mandolins and love them. Just to be sure, these are not hen's teeth, which I think is the subtext of Jim's post. A fair number of these koa Martins turn up on on the auction sites and at dealers.

Mick

[vic-victor]

Well, I guess we can only compare apples with apples. Having classical guitar background I am pretty conservative in this respect. Let's face it: no classical guitar with hardwood top sounds good. I've tried some, like old Harmonys all birch ones strung with nylon plus some odd 1930's parlour guitars. Neither of them sounded as good as the ones with solid spruce or cedar tops. Classical guitars makers are very innovative these days and I am sure you've seen those carbon fiber ones and so on. But why no one ever does classical guitar with mahogany top? I think the answer is pretty obvious.

[almeriastrings]

I had one of these. A 1924 as I recall (it was a few years ago). It sounded very nice indeed - but then I also have a partiality to the mahogany topped Martin guitars. Had an amazing D-15 12-fret slothead once! And the 000-15's are also fine finger style guitars. A good friend has a really fine vintage 00-17 also, I cannot recall the age of that, but it is quite an early one. The Koa mandolins tend to be a bit brighter than mahogany... certainly different than spruce, but I would not say inferior. Just a bit different. There is a huge difference, incidentally, between 'cheap' mahogany/koa topped instruments and truly fine ones.