‎Entandrophragma cylindricum

Scientific Name‎: ‎Entandrophragma cylindricum
Common Name(s)‎: ‎Sapele, Sapelli, Sapeli
Distribution‎: ‎Tropical Africa

I always regarded this as a cheapish industrial type wood used in door frames and other comercial type uses .. I frequently use it for making linings, I ordered some billets of it from a guy on eBay and one of the billets had this strange curly pattern in it and no way could I use it for linings co's I was sure it would be too brittle..I only dug it out again as a test piece on my newly refurbished side bender..and I have now used it on a soprano and after the first couple of coats of FP the results are not quite what I expected... I'm amazed and I have another five sets like this out of the same block.
IMG_1170 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150702140@N02/

From the title , I thought you had contracted a terminal disease
Looks wild! Has to sound at least as good as pallet wood, eh?

Ken, I think you've seen the camp uke I made a few years back, from non-quilted, stripy sapele.



It sounds pretty good, and the stripes are liked by many. I don't think a Martin Style 0 type looks good with stripes, but that's the only reason I wouldn't build again with sapele.

Mind you, a sapele neck is much harder to carve than Honduras/Central American mahogany because of the interlocking grain, and sapele is denser, so if I used sapele again I'd try a different neck wood.

Certainly not cheap industrial type wood. I've used it on many necks. In fact it's become my most often used material for neck wood. True it is a little denser and harder than honduran mahogany. That might be a good thing if you don't mind the greater difficulty in carving it. Takes a polish well, smaller pores. You avoid all the problems with CITES.

Yes ! I've used it for necks as well.

It doesn't look anything like a rock, but for some reason, "jewel-like" popped into my head looking at the grain, particularly on the lower bout. Beautiful.

I've built quite a few windows and doors with sapele, and have always found the wood to be beautiful with somewhat interlocking grain. I've found an even better timber called utile (I've only seen this available in the uk) that looks very similar to sapele, but is markedly more stable and easy to work. Does anyone have any experience with this as a neck timber?

Some identify it mahogany, especially on guitars. I like the tone of sapele on guitars; I find it similar to true mahogany, with just a tad more high end. I've heard some describe the sound as between mahogany and rosewood.