This is a solid koa top tenor ukulele and part of a series of ukes brought out to celebrate Kala Ukulele’s 20th birthday. It’s another example of Kala stepping up their game in recent times. They’ve always been good and reliable, but they have been bringing out models to challenge their reputation as a safe pair of hands, and bring out more modern, exciting models, and this KA-20TH-KOA-T tenor ukulele is a good example of that.

The sound is sweet and rich, with the D’addario fluorocarbon strings a good choice as it sounds articulate and clear, while the solid koa top and solid mahogany back and sides combine to give it a full-throated depth in the background. It’s a more interesting tone, with sweetness and warmth combined. Sometimes koa can be a little introspective, but there’s plenty of punch and volume with this 20th Anniversary Kala tenor.

My set up is included with everything from World of Ukes, so you’ll have a nice, comfortable playing action, level frets and a nut that’s cut to aid your playing of tricky chords like Bb. (Sadly no, it won’t play Bb by itself, but I’ll do my best to give you the best chance of playing it yourself!) The strings feel smooth non-challenging, in that they’re thin but not too thin, and have decent tension for sound without feeling so tense they’re hard on your fingers. The tuners are excellent quality Grover geared units. The nut width is 36.5mm.

There’s plenty too look at too, starting at the top where the black faced headstock veneer highlights the pleasant Californian poppy flower inlay. Then, there’s a veritable feast of abalone (apparently you can eat abalone - just don’t google image search them, the shell is pretty but they themselves are utterly repellant to look at!). The shell extends down the fingerboard, around the top and the soundhole. It certainly sparkles! There is rosewood binding too, a material that is also used to make the KA-20TH-KOA-T tenor ukulele’s comfort edge.

Also included is a good qaulity padded gig back, which is black with a red plush interior. If you look at the bottom of this page you’ll see a range of optional extras that are easy to add to your order. You can of course ignore the bag as the one that it comes with is good. You might want to add a strap button or two, or a low G however (I like it in low G but it does sound good with a Worth Clear low G on as well!)