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The second picture in my post is of course 'Honduran' for comparison.

True Larry, 'Cuban' should come from Cuba, a lot of S. mahogani I've got actually came from Jamaica which was blown down in a storm in the 70s. There is also some S. mahogani being grown in the Pacific Islands now. By the way the 'Honduran' I buy is actually plantation grown in the Sub-continent alongside EIR as protection belt for tea planations.

But when we talk about Cuban and Honduran, we all know what we mean.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Problem with the industry is that Swietenia mahogoni, which is what we are referring to as "Cuban" is the one species that everyone considers to be the most valuable of the mahoganies. It was always thought of as the "Genuine" of the mahoganies, with Honduran being the alternative mahogany when the Cuban supply became more dried up, unless I am mistaken and that Honduran is also Swietenia mahogoni, but I thought it was the Big Leaf variety. In recent years however, a lot of lumber companies are marketing Swietenia macrophylla as "Genuine Mahogany". So therein we have a problem as to which we consider the real "Genuine".
Personally, I have to consider the Latin name of Swietenia mahogoni to be a tip-off of what the botanists felt was the original and genuine article.

I know of a place that sells "Cuban" Swietenia mahogoni that says it was grown on a plantation in South America. I'm not sure how that would be verified other than to take their word for it.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

#4 looks like Pernambuco. Otherwise I would agree with Shane's guesses.

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

I have a few back/side sets of "Cuban" that comes from St. Croix and places other than Cuba. They are all nice but I guess it's the same as having Brazilian rosewood sets that are from trees grown in Belize. Nice wood anyway.

The small piece (5" x 2" x .75") that I listed as Board #5 is real Cuban mahogany. The face that is showing was cut at an extreme angle so that there is lots of runout showing. It is also pretty close up. That may be the reason it looks the way it does. Sorry about that guys.

That small board and 2 other boards I have were bought by my uncle Sam in Cuba before or around WWII - he was in the navy. He bought a good bit and used it for shelving in his garage until 5-6 years ago. My cousin asked to use most of it for something and 3 pieces were left over. My uncle remembered that I like building guitars and asked if I wanted the rest. When I heard what it was I immediately grabbed it.

Two of the boards are small cutoffs but one of the boards is quartered and 42" x 10" x 1". I still need to find someone to resaw this into backs and sides, but I'm leery about letting someone cut into 60 year old air dried wood that I can't replace.   

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I was going to say Belizean Mahogany

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] John is it to late to enter the contest? [/QUOTE]

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds