drpossehl Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 A guy at work had this old bass with a broken body in the neck area. He wanted $25 for it and it seemed intresting so I bought it. Turns out to be a 1965 Epiphone Newport with an orginal case. Its got a bat wing headstock with a double cut body. The neck and body are mahogany. The pickup is a huge HB in the neck possition. Anyway, how much different is african mahogany from honduran mahogany in tone? I really don't think it will mater on this bass, but I just wondered for future reference. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 I'm assuming it's Khaya, in which case, tonally, very similar. Much like the other mahoganies. It can vary a lot in weight (but so can Honduran) and colour (but so can Honduran), but I've used it very successfully in a number of electrics for both bodies and necks (although I tend to prefer Honduran to Khaya for necks, since Khaya is more variable in stiffness; Sapele is a great neck wood). Honest, tonally, for electric guitars? The intra-species variation for any given 'mahogany' is probably just as great as the inter-species variation. Use 'em more or less interchangably. Heck, I've even seen some builders (a German one whose name I can't recall) reccomend Sipo (Entadrophraga Utile, related to sapele, which is Entadrophrama cylindricum, the 'other' two 'African Mahoganies' other than Khaya Ivorensis) over Honduran for electric bodies because its just as good and more readily available in higher quality. African's half the price of Honduran, can be just as pretty (the body on my red PRS-ish GOTM entry for November or whenever it was is Khaya, African Mahogany), machines well, slightly coarser grained than Honduran, and is an all-round great tonewood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpossehl Posted February 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 Thank you for your reply. I'm not sure which variety it is, but I got it yesterday and it and am happy with the appearence of it. Also happy with the price ($40 for a piece 14 x 20 x 1 5/8). It seems a bit heavy at 12 lbs, but I'll be cutting alot of it away to make this bass body. It's a short scale (looks to be 30 1/2") and the body is actualy shorter than a strat by about 1 1/2". Thanks again, Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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