Using Solid Mango for the top, back and sides of a guitar is pretty unusual. But we like unusual. Unusual keeps things interesting. Unusual opens up a whole host of opportunities that you never envisaged.
And so it is with Mango. You may never have thought of owning a Mango guitar before... But by making that slightly left-field choice, you'll be rewarded with something truly distinctive.
So, what’s mango wood like?
Firstly, mango wood is pretty. Really very pretty with wonderfully varied flamed grains and sometimes areas of spalting too. Often it has is a mid-brown base colour, but the mango trees that grow across Java, Indonesia (where our workshops are based) tend to be lighter in colour than the more common Hawaiian variant. This is great news, as it allows us to apply stronger colours more successfully.
Still, the natural colour of mango is light brown but with frequent streaks of pale orange, yellow and green. This beautiful variance is reflected beneath the translucent blue / indigo finish that we apply, which creates an interesting array of tones beneath.
But how does it sound?
Mango sits somewhere between a hardwood and a softwood, not dissimilar to Mahogany, Koa or in fact Trembesi (as used on the Blood Moon models). Each log can of course vary in its particular hardness, but we select the stiffest boards we can to ensure the best tone.
If you’re looking for strident power and the ability to push the sound really hard, then perhaps the HiGloss rosewood models would be more appropriate. But, if you long for a crisply articulate and unmistakably warm tone, then Mango may just be what you’ve been looking for. Tonally it’s most comfortable in the upper-bass frequencies, holding through the mid-range, and dropping off at the top. So, with measured playing you’ll find a rewarding sound that successfully combines warmth with remarkable depth.
Perhaps most importantly though, you’ll have a guitar that looks – and sounds – genuinely different to pretty much any other.
And that’s really quite something!