Honduran mahogany. The light or heavy material?

[Herman]

Every time I visit my lumber yard, I cannot resist the temptation. I get greedy. Always a billet gets home. So there is quite a pile here. The thing is: I have dark colored pieces that are gorgeous to see, but on the heavy side with a lesser ringtone.
On the other side there is this very light colored and light weight stuff, with a forever ringtone.
I presume the darker wood is more stable than the light ones.

I doubt which one is "better" for an average Dread and cannot recall I read about this choice in the books I have.
Is there some "evidence" about choosing between the two?

Thanks Herman

[ken cierp]

Any pictures?

What's the dent/scratch resistance one versus the other?

[Herman]

Well Ken,
The lighter one on the left has a density of 30 lb/ft3 and with some effort I can put a dent in it with my nails.
The darker one on the right has a density of 41 lb/ft3 which does not allow a nail dent.



and I could not resist this one today: nice quatered light mahogany for three necks:

[ken cierp]

I doubt that the color or density would factor into the stability if it was cut, dried properly and the MC is about 7%. Back in the day we used Mahogany and Sugar Pine for fixtures and models mainly because of the stability -- they both machine beautifully.

The harder denser material may move the sound quality away from the more mellow characteristic studio musician seem to prefer. Sapele is pretty hard and dense and it actually (to my ear) tends to sound a bit like EIR.

[Herman]

Thanks ken, for the record: we are talking necks here, not b/s.

[ken cierp]

I believe the theory is that the heavier, denser neck will improve sustain.

[Tim Benware]

I had a piece like the one on the right very dense and heavy. I didn't want to use it for my guitars so I cut it into one inch squares to make my Mountain Music Sticks (3 string strum stick with a dulcimer scale). It worked great for them.