Kamaka Koa Guitar Preowned Circa 1920's

Famously associated with the birth of the Hawaiian ukulele, Kamaka have also made handmade guitars at a few points over their history, in extremely limited numbers. These guitars are impossibly rare and almost never seen for sale, which makes this circa 1920's era instrument very special for a number of reasons, and a wonderful addition to any collector of vintage guitars.

In 1916, Samuel Kaialiilii Kamaka Sr. began crafting koa ukulele by hand in the basement of his Kaimukī home. He and seven of his friends originally wanted to build drums but found a bigger market making ukulele. To better understand how string instruments were built, Sam Sr. traveled around the world for five years, to Europe and South America, before returning to Hawai‘i in 1921. Here, he opened a shop on King Street—“Kamaka ‘Ukulele and Guitar Works”—and made a name for himself as a top-quality ‘ukulele producer.

According to the Kamaka company, this ladder-braced guitar was made between 1921 and 1930 by Sam Kamaka Sr. in their first factory, shortly after moving production out of his house. Constructed entirely of old-growth Hawaiian Koa, it features a bowled back, bar frets, a bar-style metal saddle and gorgeous rope binding and a deeper body shape for added bass and volume. Incredibly, it's been owned by the same family since it was first purchased, around 100 years ago.

There's been repairs over the years, as you'd expect - the most notable of which is a new strip of Koa added to the centre seam on the back of the guitar, likely to fill a gap that had developed after years of use. It appears that timber was added to the end of the fretboard behind the nute, likely to fix intonation issues, and there are repaired cracks on the body. The bridge has likely been shaved at some point and the top has sunk slightly, pitching the bridge forward. It's likely been refretted and had a new saddle at some point in its life, and the finish has worn in places from playing. The current owner has chosen to leave the instrument as-is for now to preserve the condition, but a tasteful restoration could easily be done by a careful luthier, and these are all issues that you'd expect on such an old instrument.

Surprisingly for a century-old guitar, the playability is great, with a deep V-neck profile and medium action. Currently set up with Silk and Steel strings (the guitar was probably strung with gut strings when new), it has a haunting, old-world tone with incredible character and depth. When tuned to slack key tuning, harmonics ring out beautifully and it becomes a beautiful slide guitar. The old-growth Koa selected for the guitar is stunning, with three-dimensional figuring throughout.

It's hard to overstate how rare this guitar is - we simply have not been able to find another, and even Kamaka themselves were surprised that it exists! A gorgeous, playable piece of history that would be the centrepiece of any Kamaka or vintage guitar collection. Includes non-original hardshell case.