Takamine

News flash: guitars in the modern era are made of many different kinds of wood, and the choice of wood — especially in acoustic or acoustic-electric guitars — has a huge impact on the tone and responsiveness of the instrument. While most musicians tend to think of just a few wood types for use in acoustic guitar bodies, there are many other terrific wood varieties that each present their own advantages. Today, we’ll be getting into the details of the outstanding tonewood called sapele.

Just the Facts
Sapele (Entandrophragma cylindricum) is sometimes called “striped mahogany,” and its visual aesthetic makes it easy to understand why. More on that later. Note: sapele is sometimes erroneously called “African mahogany,” but that’s actually a reference to a different wood species known as khaya. Native to tropical Africa, the name sapele comes from the city of Sapele in Nigeria, where the tree flourishes. Another scientific note about sapele: it has a high density range of 640–750 kg/m3, which has an impact on tone.

Takamine Legacy Series TSF40C

Takamine Limited Edition Series CP6SSDC

Takamine G Series GN11MCE

How Does It Sound?
Sapele is most often compared to mahogany, with the benefits of warmth and midrange one expects form a mahogany-backed guitar, but with a bit of additional snap in the high registers due to its denser makeup. Overall, a sapele-backed guitar delivers a balanced, consistent sound, and it’s great for a wide variety of playing styles and music genres.

An important note about sapele and Takamine’s responsible manufacturing practices. Sapele is highly sustainable, and its trees are relatively fast growing in comparison to many other tonewoods.

How Does It Look?
In a word, beautiful. Sapele has the medium dark, milk chocolatey visual tone you expect from mahogany, but with longer, wider, and more pronounced grain striations. Most of Takamine’s sapele-backed guitars are offered in a gloss natural or natural satin finish, allowing the beauty of the wood grain to show through.

What Takamine Guitars Use Sapele?

We currently offer over 30 guitar models with sapele back and sides, and a few with sapele tops as well. They range from our value-packed G Series to our Pro Series, TT Series, Signature Series, and more. Some of Takamine’s most affordable models, like the GN11M, have sapele top, back, and sides. The GD21CE pairs a solid spruce top with sapele back and sides, finished in Satin Molasses for a terrific aesthetic. The great-looking, great-sounding, black-finished GD34CE makes use of sapele back and sides.

But you’ll also find beautiful sapele in some of our finest handcrafted guitars like the cedar-topped Pro Series P3DC, the outstanding slope-shouldered dreadnought CRN-TS1 from our TT Series, and the distinctive Kenny Chesney Signature Series model, the KC70.