Is Ribboned Mahogany African Mahogany?

[Virtuoso]

I saw many PRS private stock guitars are using Ribboned Mahogany for body. Is Ribboned Mahogany African Mahogany?

What is the tone difference between Ribboned Mahogany and South American Mahogany? Thanks.

 

[jimistephen]

I'm sure someone on here could tell you the exact difference but a quick google search leads me to believe the difference is like the difference between maple/quilt/flame/birds eye. Sound the same, looks different because if figuring.

 

[Virtuoso]

I'm sure someone on here could tell you the exact difference but a quick google search leads me to believe the difference is like the difference between maple/quilt/flame/birds eye. Sound the same, looks different because if figuring.

Thanks very much for the reply. I am ordering a beautiful PRS Private Stock, but the Ribboned Mahogany body makes me to hesitate, because I always like the tone of South American Mahogany. I am not sure if Ribboned Mahogany's tone is as good as a premium selected light-weight South American Mahogany.

 

[jimistephen]

I'm sorry, let me try again. You can get ribbon south american mahogany. The tone would be the same just the way the wood looks would be different.

 

[Virtuoso]

The private stock COA shows that the body wood is "Ribboned Mahogany", I am not sure it's "Ribboned South American Mahogany" or "Ribboned African Mahogany.

I would like to have PRS expert 's help to understand when PRS uses the term "Ribboned Mahogany", it normally refers to South American Mahogany (Swietenia Macrophylla) or African Mahogany (Khaya)?

 

[jfb]

I am no expert, but ribbon is used to describe the figure of the wood not the species.

 

[Jose]

The 'ribbon' effect occurs on both, Khaya and Swietenia, but it is WAY more common and more prominent on Khaya. PRS uses both woods, so perhaps you can request your PS with ribbon Honduran, if available.

 

[Virtuoso]

The 'ribbon' effect occurs on both, Khaya and Swietenia, but it is WAY more common and more prominent on Khaya. PRS uses both woods, so perhaps you can request your PS with ribbon Honduran, if available.

Thanks a lot! A light-weight one-piece Honduran Mahogany would be the tone heaven, which is my all time favorite. Curly ribbon figure looks very stunning, I would be greedy to have both

 

[Drew]

The ribbon PRS uses is more than likely "African" as the figure is more common in that species. Don't discount African Mahogany. Rumor has it that some of the early golden age Gibsons used African. Tonally, its my favorite Mahogany. You get a very vocal lively open tone with a nice top end sparkle with the African species. Music Man and Suhr use it quite a bit in their guitars.