Dear Guest Andrew,

Indeed the "mahogany story" is a long and complicated one and "mahogany" seems to have become a generic common name for a wole host of completely unrelated timbers.

The "true" mahoganies used for quality guitar contruction are from the botanical family Meliaceae and the specific genera/species generally used are Swietenia macrophylla and Swietenia mahagoni. These are generally from the West Indies or Central America and go under a variety of local names according to the country of origin, e.g. "Honduras mahogany".

The African mahoganies generally fall under the genus Khaya. Some of the species of Khaya are very dense and well figured and, although I have done a fair amount of guitar repair, I haven't seen a Khaya-contructed guitar although I can't see any good reason why a suitable sample of this timber shouldn't be used. Below you will find a list (non-exhaustive) of some different woods called "mahogany". To these you can add also various Asian woods also called "mahogany" such as the Phillipine "Luans" and others. I could not recommend these for instrument-making.

Mahogany (Sickingia salvadorense)

Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni)
Mahogany bean (Afzelia quanzensis)
Mahogany bean (Gymnocladus dioicus)
Mahogany eucalyptus, Red (Eucalyptus resinifera)
Mahogany, African (Khaya grandifoliola)
Mahogany, African (Khaya nyassica)
Mahogany, African (Khaya senegalensis)
Mahogany, Australian red (Eucalyptus resinifera)
Mahogany, Bastard (Carapa guianensis)
Mahogany, Belize (Swietenia macrophylla)
Mahogany, Benin (Khaya grandifoliola)
Mahogany, Benin (Khaya senegalensis)
Mahogany, Big leafed (Swietenia macrophylla)
Mahogany, Bigleaf (Swietenia macrophylla)
Mahogany, Cuban (Sickingia salvadorense)
Mahogany, Cuban (Swietenia mahagoni)
Mahogany, Dominican (Sickingia salvadorense)
Mahogany, Dominican (Swietenia mahagoni)
Mahogany, East Indian (Pterocarpus dalbergioides)
Mahogany, Entandrophragma (Entandrophragma angolense)
Mahogany, Entandrophragma (Entandrophragma candollei)
Mahogany, False (Andira inermis)
Mahogany, Heavy african (Khaya grandifoliola)
Mahogany, Honduras (Swietenia macrophylla)
Mahogany, Jamaica (Sickingia salvadorense)
Mahogany, Jamaica (Swietenia mahagoni)
Mahogany, Kentucky (Gymnocladus dioicus)
Mahogany, Khaya (Khaya grandifoliola)
Mahogany, Khaya (Khaya senegalensis)
Mahogany, New England (Prunus serotina)
Mahogany, Nyasaland (Khaya nyassica)
Mahogany, Pod (Afzelia quanzensis)
Mahogany, Red (Eucalyptus resinifera)
Mahogany, Red (Khaya nyassica)
Mahogany, Santos (Myroxylon balsamum)
Mahogany, Sapele (Entandrophragma cylindricum)
Mahogany, Senegal (Khaya grandifoliola)
Mahogany, Senegal (Khaya senegalensis)
Mahogany, Straights (Melanorrhoea spp. syn. Gluta spp.)

I believe a luthier of the high reputation of Goodall would only ever use one of the "true" Swietenia West Indian or Cenral American mahoganies but you may want to check before shelling out the readies!

Hope this is of some help.

mooman

(some sort of musician, once a professional instrument repairer, trained originally as a wood scientist and uncontrollable contributor to Mudcat "instrument" threads)

P.S. There are several other proper luthiers on this forum and people with great esxpertise who will probably have some experience with the other "mahoganies" but, personally, I would stick with the "Swietenias.

moo