Mahogany vs. Cedar

I decided to get a Mainland Concert Uke... now to decide on Mahogany or Cedar. Please make any observation/generalizations on these two woods especially with regard to Tone & Projection.
Thanks,
~Paul

Personally, I like Mahogany.
I think it has a more mellow, darker tone.

I find that spruce on smaller ukes (soprano, Concert) are a little too 'punchy' for my tasts.

All depends what you like

Romanista77 said:

Personally, I like Mahogany.
I think it has a more mellow, darker tone.

I find that spruce on smaller ukes (soprano, Concert) are a little too 'punchy' for my tasts.

All depends what you like

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I already have a "punchy" Ohana Vita, and would like something as mellow as possible. Gives me a reason to tell my Wife why needed to get it

Is there a big trade-off of projection, when you go for mellow?

Bushman ukulele offers Mahogany and Cedar/Rosewood as well. They seems to think Cedar/Rosewood is super mellow compared to Mahogany.

i think there is to an extent personal preference when choosing a wood type. but i would always go with mahogany. there's a reason why most reasonably priced uke's are made from mahogany and that's because there's more demand. i don't particularly like the colour of cedar, i would on a more jazzy type uke. but for the warm uke, it would always be the warmer coloured, warmer sounding and generally warmer feeling mahogany. ken middleton does a review of two ohana's, i think ones like the tk-35g and tk-100g but i'm not too sure. basically he does a review of a cedar and mahogany uke.

hope that helps
peace :rock:

geoffsuke said:

i think there is to an extent personal preference when choosing a wood type. but i would always go with mahogany. there's a reason why most reasonably priced uke's are made from mahogany and that's because there's more demand.

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I agree it comes down to personal prefrence. But there is more than demand to why there are alot of reasonably priced Mahogany ukes. Like price of Mahogany compared to other woods. I would say Koa has a pretty high demand, but due to the price of the wood and availibilty of the wood makes koa ukes cost considerably more. Same with spruce tops.

As for the original post I have a cedar top uke and love the way it sounds. I also have a solid Mahogany 6 string that just does not do it for me. Seems to be more mellow and i like the brighter sound of my cedar top.

and then not all Mahogany Uke's are the same either....

In a side by side betwenn 2 Pono Soprano's, 1 glossy and the other matte finished there was a BIG difference in tone and projection, the glossy was more muted.
Comparing the 2 Pono's to a Kala All Solid Mahogany Soprano was night and day the Kala had far more volume, projection and a different tone over all.
All had Aquilla Soprano strings.

I would have to say it is do to the differences in finishes as well as the Pono's being of thicker wood and heavier bracing that dulls them out.
So it's not just about "wood" type....

I LOVE my Pono and wouldn't trade it at all... but other Mahogany Sopranos sound different.

About the few solid Ceader tops I have played do sound alittle brighter than any of the Mahogany's.

I believe that Ken reviews the CK-50G and the SK-50WG. Both are, infact, Ohana and both have cedar tops. The SK-50WG is warmer due to the willow-wood back and sides. The CK-50G is rosewood back and sides. It is a veyr bright, but sweet sounding ukulele. The former is pretty and has a classy look to it, but the latter is prettier and has fancier binding and inlay.

Mahogany is warm, but also loud. Cedar gets mellower with age and that is why so many classical guitars are made with it. It is a unique tone-wood in that it retains the volume, but it sounds as though the attack softens a bit.

I hope this helps.