Sapele

[jrjerrygarcia]

I guess I have a bias towards rosewood as a back & sides tonewood because I've always heard, whether in reference to guitars or CBOM'S, it is "darker" or "richer" with "more overtones". I've heard it said that spruce & rosewood is the "classic" combination.

On a lead from Adare_Steve, I've reconsidered the Fylde line. They use sapele on several models I am considering: the short-scale archtop bouzouki, the long-scale archtop bouzouki, and the Touchstone bouzouki.

Fylde advertizes thus: "The combination of mahogany and cedar timbers for the body is a classic for rich 'dark' tone." Is sapele a kind of mahogany? Does this description sound accurate?

Thanks

[steve V. johnson]

Sapele is, as I understand, of the family of mahogany woods. # I've had a couple of Fyldes with both "mahogany" and "sapele" and I didn't find them much different from one another.

The Fylde I had that had a cedar top (the Octavius bouzouki) and "mahogany" b/s was dark, the Touchstone with the spruce top and "sapele" was less so.

The Touchstones are nice. I like Fylde stuff. IMO, as nice at Stuart, nicer than Freshwater, not as nice as Crump.

For a good perspective on woods and on the functions of the back & sides (and those woods) vis-a-vis the way the top and its wood choice all affect the tone of an instrument, look here:

www.vtguitars.com/howibuildem.html

Right now, my main instruments are rosewood b/s, but I long for a mahogany Lowden (010) guitar and a walnut mandolin, one day... #But most of my energy and concern will be with the design, execution and materials (in that order) of the tops of my next instruments.

stv