DuckyI
Well-known member
Can you imagine the volume!
Reclaimed Cuban Mahogany.
- Thread starter Timbuck
- Start date
OP
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Timbuck
Well-known member
I have put one together before , but I can't say that it was louder than mahogany maybe brighter sounding with a definite lack of bass.
what do you think.
DuckyI
Well-known member
Sounds wonderful!! I love the bell like tone it has.
Graham Greenbag
Well-known member
If it’s made from reclaimed wood then its description must surely be a matter of informed opinion; some opinion is worth more than others and maybe sometimes opinion presents itself as fact when maybe it should not. If a well known builder says this reclaimed wood is such and such a type then I’d be inclined to accept what they say as being reasonably honest and factual.
If it’s made from new wood then the designation is only as good as the validation and QA chain in place.
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Timbuck
Well-known member
Reclaimed wood don't come with Test Certificates , Letters of conformity or anything. The builder just has to trust the seller description.
OP
OP
Timbuck
Well-known member
Please be aware I cannot guarantee that it is a spruce top ...I looks like spruce...smells like spruce and the guy who I got from says it's spruce.
If the time frame of the construction of the furniture matches the widespread use of Cuban mahogany and it is represented as such to Timbuck, I believe that is what you should be assured that it is, even if the certainty is not 100% and there is not "test" for it.
OP
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Timbuck
Well-known member
Yes ! ... But what kind of spruce ?
As of April 2022, Plants of the World Online accepted 37 species.[22] The grouping is based on Ran et al. (2006).[19]
- Basal species:
- Picea breweriana – Brewer's spruce, Klamath Mountains, North America; local endemic
- Picea sitchensis – Sitka spruce, Pacific coast of North America; the largest species, to 95 m tall; important in forestry
- Clade I (Northern and western North America, in boreal forestsor high mountains)
- Picea engelmannii – Engelmann spruce, western North American mountains; important in forestry
- Picea laxa, syn. Picea glauca – white spruce, northern North America; important in forestry
- Clade II (throughout Asia, mostly in mountainous areas, a few isolated populations in higher elevations of Mexico,)
- Picea brachytyla – Sargent's spruce, southwest China
- Picea chihuahuana – Chihuahua spruce, northwest Mexico (rare)
- Picea farreri – Burmese spruce, northeast Burma, southwest China (mountains)
- Picea likiangensis – Likiang spruce, southwest China
- Picea martinezii – Martinez spruce, northeast Mexico (very rare, endangered)
- Picea maximowiczii – Maximowicz spruce, Japan (rare, mountains)
- Picea morrisonicola – Taiwan spruce, Taiwan (high mountains)
- Picea neoveitchii – Veitch's spruce, northwest China (rare, endangered)
- Picea orientalis – Caucasian spruce or Oriental spruce, Caucasus, northeast Turkey
- Picea polita, syn. Picea torano – tiger-tail spruce, Japan
- Picea purpurea – purple cone spruce, western China
- Picea schrenkiana – Schrenk's spruce, mountains of central Asia
- Picea smithiana – morinda spruce, western Himalaya, eastern Afghanistan, northern and northwest India
- Picea spinulosa – Sikkim spruce, northeast India (Sikkim), eastern Himalaya
- Picea wilsonii – Wilson's spruce, western China
- Clade III (Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly in boreal forests or mountainous areas)
- Picea abies – Norway spruce, Europe; important in forestry, the original Christmas tree
- Picea alcoquiana – ("P. bicolor") Alcock's spruce, central Japan (mountains)
- Picea asperata – dragon spruce, western China; several varieties
- Picea crassifolia – Qinghai spruce, China
- Picea glehnii – Glehn's spruce, northern Japan, Sakhalin
- Picea jezoensis – Jezo spruce, northeast Asia, Kamchatka south to Japan
- Picea koraiensis – Korean spruce, Korea, northeast China
- Picea koyamae – Koyama's spruce, Japan (mountains)
- Picea mariana – black spruce, northern North America
- Picea meyeri – Meyer's spruce, northern China (from Inner Mongolia to Gansu)
- Picea obovata – Siberian spruce, north Scandinavia, Siberia; often treated as a variant of P. abies (and hybridises with it), but has distinct cones
- Picea omorika – Serbian spruce, Serbia and Bosnia; local endemic; important in horticulture
- Picea pungens – blue spruce or Colorado spruce, Rocky Mountains, North America; important in horticulture
- Picea retroflexa – green dragon spruce, China
- Picea rubens – red spruce, northeastern North America; important in forestry, known as Adirondack in musical-instrument making
I love my 'Cuban' mahogany ukulele built by Ken Timms.
Graham Greenbag
Well-known member
Are all sellers worthy of trust? In my experience the bulk of sellers are trustworthy but a small minority are not and sometimes we don’t get the goods or quality we expect - I doubt that I’m alone in that general experience. I suspect that you and other builders check what you’ve received and make informed judgements on what you’ve most probably got.
Mine too.
I try to try each shade of mahogany Ken ships
The cubans sounded alike but different from lighter mahagony, sinker mahogany, Koa, spruce and mango.
Ken has a very strong regimented build quality which makes trying different woods an absolute pleasure. I can’t tell spruce from cedar so mahoganies are even far for me. What I feel confident about is what I hear. The cubans Ken Timms shipped a few batches back sound amazing! I can’t wait to see/hear this batch.
The cubans sounded alike but different from lighter mahagony, sinker mahogany, Koa, spruce and mango.
Ken has a very strong regimented build quality which makes trying different woods an absolute pleasure. I can’t tell spruce from cedar so mahoganies are even far for me. What I feel confident about is what I hear. The cubans Ken Timms shipped a few batches back sound amazing! I can’t wait to see/hear this batch.
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Oldscruggsfan
Well-known member
I was wondering the same. Pardon my ignorance but why does the geopolitical provenance of mahogany (or that of any other tone wood, for that matter) make any real difference to the end user? In other words, is Cuban mahogany inherently more valuable because it would unquestionably have come from trees harvested many decades ago, per the same sort of historically verifiable chronology as boards of American Chestnut, a subspecies which no longer exists because of the well documented fact that all those majestic, towering native trees were wiped out by a blight between 1920 and 1940?
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Seths Cat
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If you had ten ukuleles made from a mix of various species of mahogany they would all to a good ear sound pretty much the same. If there were differences they would be very subtle and subjective to what one person hears to another.
In general Cuban mahogany does not sound any better or worse than any other mahogany whether that be Cuban, Honduran, Brazilian or African.
For some reason there seems to be a big thing that I have not come across before as regards Cuban mahogany and quite specific with this builder. Can someone tell me why ? Is it because it's a rarer wood regardless of its tonally qualities and that's what people want rarerity means more expensive instrument for collectors.
In general Cuban mahogany does not sound any better or worse than any other mahogany whether that be Cuban, Honduran, Brazilian or African.
For some reason there seems to be a big thing that I have not come across before as regards Cuban mahogany and quite specific with this builder. Can someone tell me why ? Is it because it's a rarer wood regardless of its tonally qualities and that's what people want rarerity means more expensive instrument for collectors.
Cuba is the largest of the Caribbean islands. Perhaps we should call it Big Island Mahogany -
or might that just introduce another layer of confusion?
or might that just introduce another layer of confusion?
