Kala 20th Anniversary All Solid Koa & Mahogany XL Tenor Ukulele
This is the KA-20TH-KOA-TXL - the XL tenor from Kala’s series of ukes brought out to celebrate their 20th anniversary. These are supplied with GCEA tuning, with a low G. What is an XL tenor? It has a slightly wider bottom bout, giving a body that’s a little larger than a regular tenor. And it has a longer scale length, giving you a bit more room between frets. There’s a lot of different measurements online about that scale length compared to an average 17” tenor. I have measure the KA-20TH-KOA-TXL myself and the scale length is 19”. With this XL model, the neck is a little wider too, at 38mm.
You might think an XL tenor might have a bit more volume, or a bit more resonance. A bit more projection, and bit more clarity and chime. A bit more depth and fullness. You might think that. And you’d be right. This is a big, bold sounding uke with a very full tone, particularly with the depth brought to the fore by the low G.
The KA-20TH-KOA-TXL is equipped with D’addario Fluorocarbon strings, with an unwound low G. That type of low G can feel a bit floppy but the extra stretch from that longer scale length makes it feel nice and ring out nice and cleanly. The has very good quality gold Grover geared tuners, and a smart rosewood comfort edge.
It is finishied with gloss, with a black faceplate on the headstock revealing an inlay of a Californian poppy, which is very pretty. And there’s abalone aplenty down the sides of the fingerboard, around the soundhole and around the body, where it is paired with some rosewood binding.
It’s not radically different from a tenor, but gives you just a bit extra. That’s the X in the XL!
At the base of this page you’ll find options where you can add on extra items easily. You can ignore the gig bag as this Kala is supplied with a well padded bag. Hard cases are tricky to get for a model like this but the bag is perfectly sufficient. It has a low G already, but you might want to add a strap button or two from the list of optional extras that are at the bottom of this page (standard options shown on every page).
