Personally, I wouldn't put a hardwood top on cocobolo back and sides, whether it's koa, mahogany, walnut, or any of the other hardwoods sometimes used for guitar tops. What you'd end up with is a guitar that might be visually gorgeous, but will undoubtedly be a lot quieter than the same guitar with a spruce or cedar top.
You'd also be limiting the tone colors at your disposal. Even lightly built all-koa guitars don't tend to have a lot of different tones you can pull out of them - you can get a sweet but uncomplicated sound out of them. And you'd better like that sound, because you're limited in what you can do with your hands to get different tone colors. Hardwood tops simply don't have as many sounds that you can access as softwood tops have.
Young Lin, right now you're thinking this through in primarily visual ways, which is common among guitarists contemplating their first custom guitar order. You want something unique that only you will have, and I understand that, having been there myself.
Putting a koa top on cocobolo back and sides might LOOK splendid, and perfectly match the visual impact you're seeing in your minds' eye right now. But sonically it won't give you the rich sound you should get when you're spending the kind of money that custom instruments cost.
My suggestion is that you think this through from an auditory standpoint first. What sound do you want this guitar to have? Because whatever glorious tone you hope to get, it will be infinitely easier to get it from a softwood top than from a koa top on cocobolo back and sides.
My other suggestion is that you leave the visual embellishments to the fretboard and headstock inlay, and contrasting wood bindings, rather than the soundboard.
The guitar is going to look great, regardless, whatever combination of woods you decide upon. But if you want the guitar to sound as good as it looks, you need to ensure that the soundboard is as functional and vibrationally efficient as possible.
It's far, FAR easier to do that with a spruce, cedar or redwood top than it would be with koa.
One last thought: if you want the guitar top to be more visually complex than a natural finish spruce top can give you, getting a sunburst of some kind can give you that visual elegance while still vibrating efficiently.
Hope that makes sense.
Wade Hampton Miller
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