Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been monkeying around with a little sapele, and have heard it pronounced a few different ways now. So, what is the proper way to pronounce sapele? Is it sa-pell, sa-pell-eee, sa-peel, or something else?

I would like to offer that since it is a word of African origin, the most likely pronunciation is:

Suh-pay-lay

I'll ask my next door neighbor...he's from Africa.

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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."

i dont really know, but here is what dictionary.com says

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sapele

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sweat the small stuff.

i think whatever is accepted in the wood community is probably just cool with me. suh-pay-lay sounds alot better than suh-pee-lee to me. so im with don.

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sweat the small stuff.

I pronounce it Suh pell eee.

The guy at the exotics lumber place calls it Suh pee lay.

I also call it a great bang for the buck!

My S. African wood guy says suh-pee-lay.

in the uk its pronounced sa-pee-lee but i have also heard people pronounce
it sa-pee-lia but i am sure this is getting it mixed up with a plant of a
simalar name.

This is where latin names are usefull as there are a few difent woods being
sold as sepele these days and you wher you stand if some tells you a latin
name even if you cant pronounce it.

As we all know there are many diferent wood that get labeled under the
same name so latin names also helps to sort this out.
it would make life easier if we stuck to one name per species etc.
Joel.

Proper way to pronounce sapele? With your mouth, lips and lungs

In the southwest we say Sa-paul-ee but the most common world wide is probably su-pay-lee

I figure I must be the worst when it comes to pronouncing exotic wood names.
Don is always correcting me when I try.
Last time he told me to pronounce Maple as Map-pee-lay so I carefully consider the source.
I’m thinking of just building with wood that is spelled frenetically or that is named Bob or George or something.


Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com