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I was looking at another post asking for sources of koa, and it reminded me of a question I have. A tonewood supplier, http://www.curlykoa.com sells mango. It sounds like it's something used more for ukes in the past, but they sell guitar sets as well. Has anybody seen/built/heard something made from mango? Any opinions?

I've turned it. Medium hard, cuts and sands well. It's most distinguishing visual characteristic is a coarse texture with lots of long pores. Pale tan to orange-brown to dark brown colors. It doesn't have the chatoyance of koa, but I can't see why it wouldn't make good guitars. I saw a big stack of sets with very strong curly figure at Allied a few weeks ago. I'd suggest that anyone wanting to try it call them and grab one while it lasts.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I've got two sets from Steve over at Hawaiian Hardwood Direct and a few sets of AAA Koa. Both have a lot of color and one has ridiculous curl. Haven’t build with it yet. Steve has been easy to work with. See below:

Does that degree of red striping in the photos seem accurate when compared to personally viewing it? It's pretty wild stuff from what I see on my monitor.

Yes the color on my monitor is fairly close to it in person. I dont know if it will fade to brown, but I assume it will at some point. It is wild stuff. Steve had several sets of the colorful stuff but only one set of the crazy curl. I havent been able to find anything on the web that comes close to that curly set, even non guitar related. I had to buy it. Another strike of the sickness.

Zach, that's pretty amazing stuff there!
Your sickness does have its rewards, an up side for sure.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I find Mango to be rather variable, but I love the heavier sets which to my ears combine that earthiness of claro walnut with the sparkle of koa.

Warmest regards,
TErence

I wont try to describe the tap as it will be ambiguous as always, but I don't disagree with your statement. The high curl set is lighter that the other and close to the the koa sets I have. The curl and color is really amazing in person when wet, but it has a small crack starting at the top where the dark line is and goes a little into my 12f OOO pattern. It goes about half way down the dark line. This one wont get used for a few years, so I have some time to figure how I'll deal with it. I'm thinking flooding it with CA will do unless anyone has any suggestions.

I haven't built with it, but I did manage to pick up an interesting set, beeswing figure with some spalting.
Heard the sound is similar to Koa... we'll see.

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Jim Womack

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. "
Will Rogers

Craig....thanks for asking! I didn't get much response when I asked. Based on some of the feedback (and the pictures), I may give it a try.

Alan

Oops! I just noticed that Craig asked the question first...a year ago! Had the same title as my post as well. Spooky.

In any case, I appreciate the info.

I just finished a mango ukulele a couple months ago...tenor size
I thought it was pretty good to work with. It bent well (those uke bends are tighter than a guitar), was easy to sand, cut cleanly etc. It was a bit brittle so watch out while tapering your sides.
My set had a couple small worm holes, about 1/32 inch diameter.....typical for mango I guess. It didnt' cause any problem and I just filled them in with CA glue. It does have huge pores...plan on at least two filling sessions if you want a flat finish. I'd use it again with no worries
I saw those guitar sets too.....maybe I should make a big brother for my uke

Craig,

I have purchased from Steve Schaefer at Hawaiian Hardwoods Direct and he is very easy to work with. His web site Curlykoa.com allows you to view a high resolution photo of the wood you are buying. In addition, if you sign up on his site you often get lower prices then the posted ones. I stopped by and hand picked some nice Koa and a killer set of Mango that is just waiting to build with. The orange streaking is quite beautiful. I have heard some Mango ukuleles that had great sound but I have not heard a Mango guitar played. I don't want to say that Steve moved to a real small town in Oregon but when we drove up his neighbors stood out front and just stared. He also has some Kamani sets and that is a very rare find.

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Bob Gleason has probably used it more than other builders. He sells it, too, sometimes.

I've built two or three guitars from mango -- can't recall all of them but I do remember that one was a size 0. My experience was that it's a softer wood than koa, easy to bend, easy to work (remembering that it's soft so sharp tools are necessary), with a tap tone somewhere between mediocre koa and cardboard. Remember too that Torres apocryphally built with paper mache so the cardboard reference needn't be taken too seriously. There are no secrets to working with it as far as I could tell. It's probably another pretty but second-tier tonewood.