I love my Spruce and Walnut GS mini-e, but I wish I had waited (saved my money) for a Koa. My ear isn't good enough to tell much of a different, but the beautiful Koa wood is so unique and organic.

You have to go play a KOA against anything, I matched it to a big baby, all the other minis, high end yamahas, even under 2 grand taylor and martins. Spent days and hours in the store near my parents house in FL! There is just something about the sound you can't explain until your eardrums have a taste for dessert! Mine is sitting next to me right now, only cause my fingers hurt from driving back to VA where I live and playing it another 2 hours. GO KOA, you will thank me later!

The Koa is hands down one of the best deals on the market. Sounds and plays like a guitar that’s twice the price.

GS Mini Koa has probably the most perfect balance between warmth and brightness of any guitar I've played or owned. It's THAT good. Having said that, every GS Mini model is great.

Now that is how a review should be done! Great job my friend, keep up the good work.

These reviews are extremely helpful and enjoyable! Thank you!

I've had my Koa-plus for about a month now. Phenominal!! 😎🎸👍

thanks Tony, just bought a Koa and I just can't get it off my hands! thanks for your website I love it!

Man, that has to be the most gorgeous Koa top I've ever seen.

I love your video cutting while doing the sound test! Some videos have a big time slot between both sound tests, but here you hear it directly next to each other - perfekt sound test rutine! They sound the same oO wooohooo thanks

Outstanding review i put Koa on order thanks guy!

Didn't expect the Koa sounds better than the Spruce, but it does, great tone!

very very warm mellow sound from the Koa.... might look harder at Koa next time I buy a guitar.

The koa is stunning.

insanely bautiful koa top. great sound too!

I have a rosewood gs mini and the sounds that come out of it is flooring!

I have 2 gs minis- walnut and mahogany. I played walnut vs. koa at guitar center and no doubt went with walnut. The koa sounded way to 'boxy' and low-mid heavy, as the walnut outshined it with brightness and air. Don't let the beautiful koa wood fool you, it's a great guitar, but trust your ear! Close your eyes and play them both back to back. In my experience the walnut just has so much more life and presence to it. Just my opinion tho, this all depends on your music style/ preference too ;)

Very nice video. I've found very few comparison vids of tone woods that so clearly demonstrate the different sound qualities you can expect from a hard or a soft top. Using the same series Taylor is the absolute best "all things being equal" comparison. Well done young man. Thanks.

Koa = warmer. Spruce = brighter, with more sustain.

Cant take my eyes off of the koa wood.... so beautiful

Both sound amazing, but the look of the Koa + the electronics = AMAZING DEAL

I’ve owned a GS Mini-e Spruce/Rosewood for about 6 years and just purchased a GS Mini Koa-e + a few days ago. I would describe the Spruce as a bit snappier and brighter, and the Koa is in between the Spruce and Mahogany. Not quite as mellow and punchy as mahogany, not quite as bright as the spruce. You can’t go wrong with any GS Mini though. Once I got my Mini, it almost completely replaced my Sapelli 214CE just because of how portable and comfortable it is. They sound phenomenal for the size and price

On the first listen I preferred the Koa for its rounder tone, but after a few listens I'm leaning towards the spruce here despite being a bit more boxy.

Didn't think I would say this, but I think I favor the spruce model more. Thanks Tony.

I tried all the Taylors and Martins in this category (travelling) and took home the Taylor GS Mini. However, after reading many reviews, I decided to try an older 2014 Martin D Jr (they don't make the new ones like that anymore.) After a week of having both guitars in my posession I decided that the Martin sounds like a full size guitar and the Taylor more like a small guitar. I can not only travel with the Martin but it is totally usable as a recording instrument. I really wanted the Taylor to win because it looked better, it had a much better traveling bag, and a great pickup and tuner. However, the Martin's tone was flat out superior and at the end of the day to me tone is #1.

In Hawaii we prefer Koa, If you really want to bring the sound out of the Koa, tune the guitars to drop D or C. Then listen again! These are the tuning we use in slack key guitar playing.

This was very helpful! Thanks! The Koa seems to have a darker more mellow tone vs. the slightly sparkly ring to the spruce. Question: what mic are you using for all of these reviews? Mono? or Stereo?

Great comparison, though as I feared I still prefer the spruce. I love the look of koa and to a slightly lesser extent sapele on a top, but whenever I hear a comparison or try one, I always prefer the spruce. As a sucker for nice wood this has me conflicted XD

pleaaase, when a comparission between gs mini-e koa vs 114 (c)e wallnut? is there a great difference on 114 wallnut and sapelle?

I like koa!

Please Tony, do "some" GS mini review :)

There’s a duff note somewhere in the spruce. It’s subtle but it’s there.

i like the koa. Compared to spruce it has less overtones and slightly less treble leading to a slightly more mid rangey, yet clearer sound.

So torn, the Koa has the look for me, but the Spruce sounds so full! I there anything this size, that looks like the Koa, but sounds like the Spruce??

I have 2 GS mini e-koas and the sound between the two is noticeably different. One is very mid-rangey and one sounds a lot brighter. I am not sure which one I like better but the brighter one is my wife's 😀

The spruce seems to sustain notably better. But the koa maybe sounds a little warmer?

That Koa top makes it sound like an all solid guitar against the sitka

Please give us Round shoulder round-up video!!! Epiphone AJ45ME, Gibson J-45 Standard, Eastman E10SS and Blueridge BG140. These are the all solid wood short-scale, Sitka Spruce on Mahagony models that I think a lot of singer-songwriters are looking at. If you can't get one of models mentioned, the J-15 would be another good one to add in, but I know you've already done a J-45 to J-15 comparison for that other KZfaq channel.

Awesome channel mate ,I’m looking at getting an acoustic and your info is great 👍 🙏

They look so cute😍

can you compare a koa gs mini e vs a Takamine cp3nyk please

Ive been looking into a Simon & Patrick Woodland Pro Parlor. The specs looks good, all solid construction for about 900 bucks are these canadian guitars any good? Or should I go for something like a Martin LX 000x1ae?

So I feel like the Koa is a deeper sound if that makes any sense at all??? The spruce was slightly louder and brighter with low resonance while the koa was deep, bassy, warm and full of resonance.

Both sound good to me the spruce is more bell like a little cleaner brighter sharper.if yo catch my drift.

The Koa is has more mid range the spruce a bit more sparkle both sound good though the Koa projected better I thought it was louder on everything you played not sure if mic placement caused this as it doesn't have electrics onboard or the wood itself

The spruce sounds a bit muddier or flat, and the koa sounds more shimmery, but still has decent lows

I had a guitar store guy tell me the woods are all the same on the Gs mini's and that the only difference is the cosmetic veneer of different woods on top for decoration, hence the "layers". Is that true about the woods on these guitars? Thanks!

Hmmm, it’s like watching a great golfer. Where no matter what club he uses he’s brilliant. Both guitars sound great when Tony plays them. In fact any guitar sounds great and they all sound exactly the same when Tony plays them.

hey man how about koa vs rosewood??

I would without a doubt go with koa if it weren't for the fact that I could get a used spruce top for around $400 but Koa would cost me a decent amount more. I'm selling my big Jasmine dreadnought and buying a gs mini cause I'll be living in a frat house and there really just isn't room for a big guitar like that.

I am looking at the Koa or Mahogany GS currently and came across the Seagull coastline (via KZfaq) - do you have a view on the sounds and quality/build of the Seagull compared to the Taylor?

if you do decide to purchase a gs mini koa do it on a site where you can see the top or do it in person preferably, i ordered mine online and got a pretty ugly and boring top opposed to the beautiful top he has in this video! even with the ugly top it's still a gorgeous guitar though

I like Koa but I just don’t like to have guitar with the pickup... :(

The spruce has more bass, the koa sounds more lively.

Is it good to do plugged in performances ? Like in a pub and all

Wouldn’t have thought so going in but the Koa actually has a better top end than the spruce in addition to that mid fullness and warmth.

looks like the KOA had a larger sound hole. Thanks for the comparison I think I like the spruce it rings longer astain ability

I don't think there's a clear winner. I personally prefer the sound of the Koa, but both guitars sound gorgeous. Just depends on what you're playing.

Both guitars sound the same to me. Any idea how different they are supposed to sound? I would say the Koa has a very nice grain to it! Really nice design. =D

Spruce Tay-Tays always sound better in open or dropped tunings, imho.

I prefer the koa, it suites my taste in sound and workmanship...

I dont know if it's the recording, but I can't tell any difference in the sound. They both sou.d exactly the same.

Koa wins for me. And prettier too. Too bad there's no pickguard, because my pick would be dinging the wood.

Where I live the Koa is $400 more than the spruce. Not sure if it’s worth it

Hi tony! Is it true that koa gets better as it ages? And is the koa bass poor?

The koa sound boxy on the higher frets , spruce is much more clear

Looks like the GS mini Spruce is a little better on bass strings, imo.

Just sold me on the koa... More punch, articulation...

Tony, you grew your beard back. Now you look like a Hobbit again! Just kidding. :-) I think the Koa model sounds WAY better than the spruce model. The latter sounds way too frappy and twangy for my ears, demanding a very light touch to get a nice tone, like the Taylor Baby. Given the choice i'd pick the Koa model, mostly for the better acoustic sound and the electronics built-in, but what I'd really like to hear is a smaller body design like the GS Mini or a Parlor guitar, built entirely with solid woods, bone nut and saddle and quality components throughout. I've written to to Bob Taylor about this but as yet such a model is unavailable, since they think of theses thing as cheap travel guitars that are going to take a lot of abuse, or as practice instruments for kids or small women. For me it would be a much better idea to pay a few hundred more and buy a good used P-01 or -03 or -05 from Larrivee; ten times the guitar for about two to three times the street price of a GS Mini.

I'm looking for some help on trying to identify a guitar of mine. TONY PLEASE HELP IF YOU SEE THIS. A few years ago a friend gave me a little Takamine G series with the Model number CORONA. I've been using it as my travel guitar for YEARs. Recently I realized I cant find the little suckers anywhere. It has a palm tree, the CORONA beer crown above the sound hole, and Kenny Chesney's signature all "etched" into the body somehow. I would really like to know what takamine made it for and if its special in any way. Its a really easy to play bright sounding little guitar, please lemme know!

I'm I crazy or does Koa always sound as if you have old strings on a spruce. Or is it just me?

I wonder what the backs of these guitars look like?

koa win

Much closer in tone than I thought they'd be.......I think the mahogany topped version would sound better

I definitely hear a difference, I can't tell which one I like better though

More Gibson guitars on the channel please.

Koa

To me the spruce maybe slightly mellower than the Koa, otherwise very close.

Spruce - Bright Canadian Hey! Koa - Dark, cold , Soulless 😂

Spruce sounds honky unlike koa...