Tacoma EKK9

Nice all solid wood, satin finished, koa bodied mini-jumbo. Faux tortise shell binding is graceful and smoothly understated. Nice workmanship! Not certain of year, but a discontinued model from what I understand. Not many features, but it's an acoustic sans pick up. It doesn't matter, it's a stunning guitar.

Crisp, full, and shimmery. Tight bass, a bit compressed when strummed hard, plenty of volume for the most part. It also digs open tunings and slide. Flat and finger picks well. Sweetly resonant.

Relatively low action, but as I said it's slide friendly. Nice finish, frets, and tuners. No flaws, that I can see. The neck is a tad wide, but I really don't mind. Smells delicious!

I can see no issues for years...

I don't know, but I'd heard good things before Fender bought 'em. Not sure now, but I don't know why it'd slip.

I've played for about 13 years. It was exactly what I was looking for. If it were stolen or lost I would scour the planet for another and seriously harm any thief.

2002, purchased NOS by me in 2005.
Mini Jumbo solid KOA top, back and sides. No electronics.
Satin finish, tortoise binding, herringbone sound hole trim

Very easy and comfortable guitar to play.
A nice compliment to my D28.

When this guitar was available as a standard production item from Tacoma, I understand it retailed for 1300 to 1400 and routinely streeted at $900 to $1000 give or take a few bucks. At this price this guitar is an incredible value compared to Solid KOA offerings from Martin and Taylor. The fact that I paid <700 new including the deluxe Tacoma OHSC, I simply could not pass on this one.
Even though this guitar sat on the shelf for a few years (?) after some lite cleaning and set up it plays beautifully. A very well put together guitar. With regular care and feeding it will outlast me.

To new to tell, but as it was purchased NOS and weathered the usual music store shelf abuse with little or no problems, I am sure that it will hold up fine if maintained properly.

Haven't dealt w/ Tacoma, but I have heard of some problems from other owners trying to get warranty service now that Tacoma is owned by Fender

A fantastic guitar at a fantastic price.
Sure, it would look prettier with a gloss finish, but I am happy with the satin finish and the overall sound and quality of this instrument.
I recently found out that this model (Mini Jumbo, Solid KOA) is available from the custom shop, but dealer cost is over $1300 which means street will be approx $1500 +.
At that price, this is still a fine instrument worthy of consideration from anyone looking for a fine american made solid wood guitar.
I have been playing for many years and own some very nice gear (D28, Gibson Historic R8 and R6, ES 335, PRS McCarty, Fender AV57 Strat).
I know a guitar when I play one and this Tacoma fits the bill.

This is a beautiful guitar, made in the US of solid Koa and a rosewood fingerboard, with satin finish. tortoishell neck & body binding, herringbone inlays... very good looking guitar! and the attention to detail is exquisite. for example, the rim of the soundhole is rounded, rather than just being a straight cutout. the Tacoma brand label is etched into the headstock rather than being a stamp, decal, or inlay.

The neck is wider than my Takamine EG230, which, for me, makes it *much* easier to play. The bridge and nut are carefully setup so that the guitar is easy to play with impeccable intonation and clarity of tone. The tuning machines operate very smoothly and feel good when I turn them; just the right amount of resistance and due to the smooth operation I'd like to believe that they will help the strings last longer when retuning, although I can't substantiate that.

It's worth noting that the guitar has no pickguard, it was probably meant to be a fingerstyle guitar. Although I play fingerstyle almost all the time, I almost wish it has one of those translucent pickguards so I could pick it occasionally without worrying about scratching its finish. It also has no cutaway, and the neck meets the body at the 14th fret. playing higher than that requires the same reach as playing any other jumbo without a cutaway. I believe it has 19 or 20 frets, but I don't know off hand.

My particular Ekk9 has no electronics, and I don't intend to put any in. Just my pair of condenser mics will do. But there are electronics options available, of which I recommend the B-Band option.

It comes with a hardcase, but the store I bought it from mistakenly let that case go with another guitar and provided me with a high-quality softcase instead.

It came strung with Elixir Nanoweb strings, which I will continue to use on it.

I'm going to give this a 9 because I think a lot of people would wish it had a pickguard and/or a cutaway, but I really don't miss or need them.

I play mostly solo fingerstyle arrangements of celtic folk music, occasionally in alternate or open tunings and usually trying to play some sort of accompaniment along with the melody. I liken the tone to a good trumpet; it has a rich brassiness to it, generally very warm, rich, and mellow, but it responds well to dynamics and can sound very powerful when you want it to. It's not bassy (the body is relatively small), but the bass notes (even when tuned down) have strength and definition to them.

The sustain on this thing is tremendous! I never realized an acoustic could have such sustain. In fact, it has made me aware of the fact that I need to learn to stop notes in addition to starting them, because if I don't, they keep on going!

Finally, I find the tonal balance to be pretty even throughout the range. The sound projects equally well when playing the lowest bass notes as when I play the highest treble notes on it. It's substantially louder than my Takamine when played with similar technique.

The factory setup feels pretty ideal to me. the action is higher than my takamine (which has had a custom bone saddle made) but somehow it doesn't seem much more difficult to play. It feels very solid; the strings react to your playing but they are easy to control. As well as this guitar projects its tone, I doubt you'd need to hit the strings hard enough to make them buzz or rattle.

There is a tiny mark on the back of my guitar, and a little scrape on the side of the neck, both possibly from in-store handling, although the one on the neck looks like it was made by a file of some sort so I look at it as a sign that it is genuinely hand-made. The mark on the back, unfortunately, is probably from someone's belt, but due to its location and the fact that it doesn't appear to be more than a scuff makes me not really worry about it.

I feel that this is a guitar whose quality far exceeds its price range... However I can't really comment on this category much because I haven't and probably won't gig with it much if at all... I'm content to play music at home most of the time.

I haven't had to deal with their support, and hopefully I won't have to. It has a limited lifetime warranty, as specified on their website, but I haven't found any workmanship flaws or defects that I believe might lead me to make use of it.

I *love* this guitar! I've been playing for about 15 years but recently switched to 6-string acoustic from my weird tapping instruments. When I'm at home, I am rarely without this guitar, and I occasionally bring it to work with me in case I feel like playing. If I lost it or it was stolen, I would probably cry, and then I would definitely buy one just like it.

Up until I chose this guitar, I had been considering a few other Tacomas, an Olympia MisChief, and a Lowden 025. I liked this one the best, which amazed me because I'd been lusting after the Lowden for over a year. Of course I would probably be just as happy with that guitar (for 2-3 times as much money) but I prefered the Ekk9's midrangey tone to the Lowden's deep bassy tone.

I honestly have no idea why this guitar was only $975. I felt that it was easily on par with the other guitars that were much more expensive... However, I'm very happy it was $975 because with tax it came out to exactly the amount of cash I had on hand!

The model is a "Little Jumbo"... It has all solid woods with Firery Koa for the Top, Sides and Back. The Neck (20 Frets) is Mahogany and the Fretboard is Rosewood. It has a Satin finish throughout. I must say that I have never liked a satin finish but on this guitar I must say it is incredible. It feels very "alive" when you play it. The EKK9 isa new guitar this year so there are not to many of them out there. You can order this guitar with a pick-up (ie: b-band, fishman etc) but I choose to buy a Fishman Rare Earth (Humbucker). It has wonderful action. I have been playing for 34 years (lately mostly fingerstyle and I use a heavy flatpick when picking. This guitar is made in Tacoma Washington. I was in Tacoma recently and called Tacoma Guitars to see if I could come and tour the factory but they declined.
This guitar lists for $1199.00 US.

I've never owned a Koa guitar before but I have played a number of them and enjoyed most of them. This particular guitar has a marvelous sound. Just the right amount of warmth and separation. The action is wonderful and the guitar is very loud acouticly. I play it through a Fender Acoustasonic Pro (not made anymore) and it really sound great. The neck is playable all the way up the neck and stays in tune everywhere.

The setup was very nice from the factory. The Koa top and back were impecibly bookmatched. It is gorgeous... I haven't found any flaws. The case is nice but has a alignment problem that makes it difficult to close without paying close attention to what you are doing. I'm going to cal Tacoma to see if I can trade it for another. As I mentioned ealier the Satin finish is amazing. It seems to allow the guitar to vibrate right through your body.

I've only had this guitar for a couple of weeks, so I can't answer this question.

I'll let you know...

I've been playing for 34 years. I also own a GD Armstrong Archtop. GD is an Oregon luthier. I've owned Martin L-5 (84) 000 (1958) D1235 (68), Larrivee, OM10 Maple, Taylor 410 (2001), Ovation, Gibson J45 (62) J200 (62)- Plus a few I can't remember right now. I must say that the Tacoma is right up there with the nicest guitars. Obviously every guitar has it's own personality. This guitar is light, responsive, stays in tune, has a great tone and looks like the piece of art that it is. The best part is that this is the worst it is ever going to sound. I can't wait for it to break in. This one is a keeper.