Kona KE35TR

Body-Maple back, top and sides.
Maple neck with rosewood board. Abalone Dot Marker.
Neck through design
Smooth enclosed tuners 3+3
2 Humbuckers with 2 tone, 2 volume controls
Beautiful translucent cherry sunburst finish
Solid, feels just like a 335 and a blast to play
All hardware is chrome plated (nickel) and flawless.

Covers the gammut from jazzy dark to Gretsch-like country twang. I bought it mainly to perform jazzy, fusion and bluesy styles> It does a pretty good job at covering this ground for the price I paid for it. In stock form, it is very quiet in operation. Extreme volumes with the stock pickups will yield feedback. that's about the only dislike. The Duncan APH-1 Alnico II's that I'm putting in shortly will fix that. Stock pickups don't sound bad but they lack a bit of clarity and dynamics.

I bought this one brand new-straight out of the box and it played extremely well. For a 250.00 guitar, I was super amazed. No you don't get flamed maple but you do get solid construction and a very nice finish. Mine is a Cherry Sunburst. It has a 6 ply aged looked binding, set neck and nice touches of faux abalone inlays. It is solid, well constructed and visually stunning to look at. Attention to detail is not on the same level as a Hofner, D'Angelico or even a Gibson or Heritage but it's not supposed to be. This is a $250.00 piece that is a serious player and ideal for a light mod project.

I've only had the guitar a couple of days and I've had to tighten the obligatory nut and bolt here and there but I've had to do the same with the more expensive pieces I own so-not a problem. Everything is solid and all the nickel plated chrome parts are flawless so far without flaking. It will definitely make the stage without a backup.

Haven't needed the customer support yet. They do offer internet contact to the company. (Online registration and support) Time will tell although unless something catastrophic happens to it, I doubt I'd need them.

I've posted here before and I won't go into all the particulars of how long I've played. It has been a long time and I teach as well as perform and do studio. This guitar is suitable for those purposes out of the box.

I bought this because I didn't own a jazz box or a semi-hollow. I never thought it fit my style. (I got a bad B. B. King phobia) I've always likes the type of sound that Larry Carlton or even John Scofield gets so I wanted to try a semi-solid just to see if I liked it. So far I'm very pleased. I know very little about Kona as a company but this guitar was visually stunning and that drew me to it. It's chinese made and these days you can walk through Sam Ash for example and see stunning looking chinese repros of historic models all over the store. Some good; some not so good. This Kona is one of the better examples I've come across for the money. Even the diecast, closed tuners are accurate and fast. I'm changing out the electrics on it and I really feel it will become a serious contender to the $900-$1500 category. It's a blast to play and that's the most important thing, isn't it? Stay tuned for an update.