I received feedback from a distributor of kaya go boards, and two of his boards have what he described as “wooden blocks or chips used to fill in the gaps in a gnarl/knot” on the back surface. Pictures attached. I was wondering if anyone has experience with these, and if it’s unadvisable to buy a board that has these (in terms of sound quality, possible issues with the board down the line, etc.). I like the boards otherwise, but obviously don’t want to spend money if the product will be substandard (besides visual aesthetics — I don’t plan to spend a lot of time gazing at the back of the boards).

Thanks!

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Hi Anarcho,

That's interesting; look forward to others' replies.
Just so happens I saw a similar situation, with a big dining table,
just four days ago (but the 'fixes/tesuji' were prominently presented as part of the design or feature )I too suspect no noticeable audio problems (unless you're some kind of audio professional!);
usually, I also spend very little time staring at the bottom of a board
(except the first few minutes when I introduce Go to raw pedestrians ).

In the dining table the repairs were probably to stabilize or prevent cracks. In the go boards with repairs with wood chips, probably there were sap or resin pockets in the wood which opened when the wood was being worked. Such things are common and probably are present in the interior of many go boards with flawless surfaces. Sap pockets, if properly repaired, do not cause future problems.