Jeff,
It's well known around here about my love of mahogany! When I'm deciding what guitar to build next I have to have a good reason to pick a different back & side wood, that's mainly because the mahoganies suit my playing style.
There are a number of different species of mahogany available as well as some faux mahoganies from entirely different genuses that are sold as 'mahogany'. They will all make very good guitars.
The most commonly available and usually cheapest tonewood is Honduran Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). Honduran Mahogany is usually as stiff as Indian Rosewood but has a lower density and a somewhat softer surface. This means that it exhibits the same powerful projection properties as Rosewood but with a drier, woodier tone, with very strong fundamentals. The overtones produced are very rich especially in the midrange, giving Mahogany guitars a characteristic 'growl' to their sound. One of Mahogany's great strengths is the wonderful separation and bite it gives to individual notes making it an ideal wood for more complex fingerstyle pieces, Blues and Travis picking, where the rosewoods can become muddy, as well as strummed and picked accompaniment. Mahogany has a rich mid-brown colour, often with a strong stripy appearance as the grain changes direction across it's width. Well quartered pieces have a fine checkered figure. Straight grained Honduran bends and works well, it takes a good finish but is porous so will need filling, I usually use epoxy.
I use sustainably grown Mahogany sets which sound fantastic, and exhibit a mild flame at the edges similar to Koa. These are plantation grown in Sri Lanka, much as Indian Rosewood is these days. I haven't seen mahogany of this quality for a long time! I would be perfectly happy if this was the only tone wood available! Combine it with a good European Spruce top and you have a guitar made in heaven!
The small leaf Mahogany, S.microphylla, also from South America is very close grained and takes a great finish it works and bends well. Slightly more dense than Honduran, it's very maple like in sound.
If you can find some good old sets, Cuban Mahogany, (Swietenia mahogani) is a true premium tonewood. It is denser than the other Swietenias and gives a little more overtones to the guitar's voice, while still retaining the characteristic growl so beloved of the mahoganista (my new term for those addicted to the wood). I have some 90 year old sets that I take out and stroke occasionally they are so good! I've built one guitar from it and it is the best soundng instrument I have ever made. I've also just got a 150 year old billet which, if only I had a re-sawing bandsaw I'd cut into the most fabulous sets, but it's not going to deteriorate so I can be patient.
The faux mahoganies, mainly from Africa, also make great guitars, I have not used them so extensively but have built at least one guitar from each.
A number of different species of the Genus Entandrophragma
are sold as Sapele mahogany, they tend to be available in more fancy figuring, if that is your thing, and vary from a pronounced stripe to the outrageous quilting that Bob Cefalu has sold. The sound is similar to the true mahoganies but more restrained in character. The other one that turns up fairly commonly is Khaya like Sapele it is a little more dense that Honduran and can be more difficult to bend like any figured wood.
Jeff, try a set of honduran mahogany, I'm sure you'll be a convert.
Colin
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ha ha ha-----Snick