Okoume wood guitar?

[tubenit]

Anyone here built OR played an electric guitar built out of okoume wood?  I'm not familiar with this wood and wonder what kind of tone it has? 


Okoume | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood) (wood-database.com)


Amazon.com: BexGears Electric Guitar Kits Okoume wood Body maple neck & composite ebony fingerboard : Musical Instruments


I'm wondering if this wood might tonally be similar to basswood which is not a bad tone wood when capped by a maple top?


Hmmmm ...............  just found out that StewMac sells body blanks of okoume and describe the tone like mahogany but brighter (which seems like a contradiction in description)

About Okoume
With beautiful luster and light weight (it's been used for decades in boat and airplane building) Okoume is ideal for electric guitars. Sonically, it's similar to Mahogany, but with a brighter high end and more dynamic range. It glues easily and finishes very well. 

With respect,  Tubenit

[sluckey]

I'm reminded of luan, the stuff commonly seen on cheap hollow core interior doors.

[acheld]

I have built three guitars -- two offset, one tele -- with Okoume.   The Stewmac description is about right, though to be honest, the descriptions of tone are quite like descriptions of the taste of wine.  I dunno, I never tasted "notes of vanilla" in my best plonk.  Not clear to me that Okoume sounds that much different than a generic "mahogany."

Okoume is OK to work with, easy to shape, but takes quite a bit of work filling the grain when finishing.  My Okoume bodies do resonate just fine, but not as well as a good swamp ash.  The better pieces of swamp ash are lighter than Okoume.

Of course, swamp ash is now difficult to source and expensive. . . .

[tubenit]

Hey, thanks for the description!  Any chance you could share a photo of one of those guitars? 


Jeff

[acheld]

Here you go!

This was painted about two months ago, and I'm about ready to wet sand.  If you look closely, you can see where I had trouble with filling the grain.   This should smooth out with wet sanding, though in truth I've grown to like the look.

[Grees01]

Hey there. I just wanted to mention that currently StewMac has a sale going on for some some ash body blanks. "Swamp Ash Body Blank

"Don't miss your chance! Top-quality Swamp Ash is rapidly disappearing. We've secured a stash of premium body blanks for our customers—these are the best we've seen in a long time. A rare find. These are top quality blanks, perfect for a translucent finish to show off the amazing grain. Each is expertly grain matched, joined, and sanded—ready for you to start your build. The body blanks are your choice of 1 to 4 pieces. With the growing shortage, premium one-piece blanks are becoming incredibly rare and sought after. These are sure to go fast!"

 I understand this topic is about okoume wood and I don't mean to detract from the topic, but since swamp ash was mentioned, I thought maybe some might also be interested in this.