With the Hawaiian craze in music and musical instruments starting in the mid 19teens Koa wood started to be used for guitar construction.
By the 1920’s many manufacturers made Koa models, including Martin.
This guitar Style 749 was Weymann’s homage to this beautiful Hawaiian tonewood. As far as I know this model was H.A. Weymann & Son’s only Koa model. I have photos of 2 examples:
1. WEYMANN Koa Guitar Style 749: Owner Keith Walker.
A beautiful example of this model. Serial number dates it to ca.1931. Surprisingly this example has the Style number omitted from the top of the headstock, but there is little doubt it is a Style 749.
The owner, Keith Walker, kindly supplied the dimensions of his guitar:
Overall Length: 37 ½”
Body Length: 19”
Lower Bout: 13 11/16”
Upper Bout: 9 11/16”
Depth at End Pin: 4 ¼”
Scale: 25”
Frets to the Body: 12
Like many of Weymann’s finer quality and later guitars this instrument is factory X-braced.
These photos above show how Weymann utilized the metal tail-piece and the fixed bridge by passing the strings from the saddle through the bridge onto the tail-piece, which looks to be unique to Weymann’s. If those holes have been replaced by grooves they would have been added post-production by a past owner for easier string replacements.
PHOTO GALLERY
Note the Repaired crack and the missing Style number on the headstock, and the original tuners (In an earlier post I said these where replacement tuners, however they are not — they are original Waverly tuners in great condition!).
Keith kindly supplied a photo of the back of one of the Waverly tuners on this guitar:
2. WEYMANN Koa Guitar Style 749: Reverb website some years ago.
This guitar is another beautiful example of a Style 749 in original condition. In the description on the Reverb website at the time it was listed it stated that it had been sitting in a case since the 1930’s! The guitar was tuned up and yet, the neck is perfect.
The story from the grand daughter of the original owner was that this guitar was bought in the early 30’s, her grandfather played it to woo her grandmother. Once she married him, he never touched it again!
PHOTO GALLERY
This guitar was further described on Reverb:
“The slight V shape of the back of the neck is super cumfy and adds to its strength and rigidity. The old-growth tree that this was probably made out of is so strong, the wood will not bow.
“What I love about this guitar is the wide flat feel of the fretboard. Nut width is 1 11/13”. The action is nice and low with no buzzing. The sound is beautiful! The small Koa body is loud and full. All the pieces used on the body are book matched and the head has a nice rosewood cap. The tail piece/bridge arrangement had me worried that it wouldn’t resonate, but I was wrong. The tone is sweet, punchy, with a slight boxy tone that gives it its personality. It’s so fun to play you do not want to put it down!
The guitar has a real early Martin vibe…… It is on par with the quality of an old Martin.…
This guitar was originally strung to play Hawaiian style with nut jack. Original Ree Lax slide and picks and nut jack included! “
These two guitars are clearly rare survivors.
Many thanks, Charles
Hello Charles,
I too have a 1931 749 KOA, I had sent you pics Nov 2018 and registered it.
Let me know if it is not in your registry. My S/N is only 20 before this one but the odd thing was mine did not have the model number stamp on the end of the headstock.
I have a ’43 0-15 Martin that is very similar in size and play as well. I just dug them both out the other day to pick on some.
Take Care and thanks for doing what you are doing!
Keith
Hi Keith, Thanks for reminding me. I do have your koa guitar registered and I had always intended to post about it however a couple of years ago my health was not so good and some things I intended to do slipped through the cracks. I only kept one photo of your guitar (with a Gibson beside it), and the link where you sent others has now expired and I didn’t save them. If you resend them I’ll add your guitar to this post, yours looks a better example! With apologies – Charles