2005 Goodall Grand Concert Royal Hawaiian

25 January 2024

This is one of Goodall's top models and for many years featured on their home page, until it was redesigned in early 2016. When I bought it new from a shop in Sydney Australia in August 2009 the list price was just under AU$13,000. The Goodall price list 2013 [PDF] lists these at US$10,000 in 2013 and as far as I can tell that price did not include the case or the electronics!

Royal Hawaiian front

back of body

Royal Hawaiians are available in four body styles - from largest to smallest they are Jumbo, Standard, Concert Jumbo and Grand Concert. In that respect the Royal Hawaiian is more a 'style' than a 'model'.

figure of koa wood

peghead

My one is a Grand Concert, the smallest of them all, smaller than any of my other flat tops and extremely comfortable to hold. The Grand Concert is actually a bit smaller than a 000 and about the same as an OM. You can compare Acoustic guitar sizes here.

Playing "Happy Talk" from South Pacific on my Royal Hawaiian.
Recorded on a Nikon DSLR camera so the sound is not as good as it could be.

Specs

AAAA grade Curly Koa back, sides and front
Purpleheart binding on the peghead, body and fingerboard
Purpleheart heel cap and truss rod cover
Mahogany neck
Ebony fingerboard, bridge, bridge pins and peghead veneer
Abalone soundhole inlay
Gold Gotoh 510 tuners with ebony buttons
L.R. Baggs Element Active pickup system with control wheels in the soundhole, one for volume and one for low cut filter
Around the 12th fret there's a slightly kitsch inlay in abalone and mother of pearl, depicting an island scene with palm tree.

island inlay

Purpleheart is the heartwood of a tree from Central America that turns from dark brown to bright purple when cut. It is very difficut to work with due to its hardness and it needs a carbide blade to cut it. It is sometimes used in fine inlay work in furniture making.

Back wood grain
Purpleheart body binding and backstrip

Koa is a type of acacia tree endemic to the Hawaiian Islands and was used on Weissenborn lap slide guitars in the first half of the 1900s, but has become popular on flat tops in recent years. It can look fairly ordinary or, as in this case, pretty spectacular. It is quite expensive, especially when it is as highly figured as this. In 2013 Goodall charged an additional US$1200 for an upgrade to AAAA grade Koa on its rosewood guitars, including top, back and sides.