Mahogany – Sawn – Guitar Body – 50×360×550

Mahogany guitar body blank. 50×360×550mm. Lightweight, warm-sounding, stable grain — the timber that’s been under Les Pauls and SGs for decades. Sold per piece.

The mahogany that gives Les Pauls and SGs their voice. Plantation-grown Swietenia macrophylla — the same species the American trade lists as Honduran or big-leaf mahogany — milled to electric body proportions and ready for the template.

What it is. True mahogany from CITES-compliant plantation supply, the timber that has carried set-neck electric bodies since the 1950s. Warm reddish-brown heartwood, straight grain, low density for its strength — the combination that gives mahogany bodies their characteristic sustain and weight balance.

What you’d make with it at 50×360×550mm.

• Single-piece electric body — Les Paul, SG, Junior, Special silhouettes
• Stratocaster or Telecaster body where you want a warmer voice than ash or alder
• Set-neck or bolt-on body with room to orient grain for figure
• Bass body with a routed control cavity and contoured back

Working notes

• Density: ~545 kg/m³ — light, the reason mahogany bodies stay comfortable on a strap
• Hardness: ~3.6 kN Janka — soft under the gouge, holds chisel detail well
• Grain: Straight to slightly interlocked, even texture — predictable under routers and templates
• Surface: Supplied rough-sawn — dress one face true before templating or glue-up
• Working: Machines cleanly with sharp tooling, glues and screws well, takes carved tops and contour work without complaint
• Finishing: Pore-filled and sprayed with nitro is the classic route; Rustins Danish oil alone gives a warm hand-rubbed result

What luthiers say about it. Gibson’s published body-timber spec has anchored on mahogany since the 1952 Les Paul, and the consensus across major luthier forums credits the species for the warm midrange and sustain that defines the set-neck electric category.

The stack it came from. CITES-listed mahogany has tightened steadily since 2003 — what comes through legitimate plantation supply now is what builders work with. We sit on body-grade pieces until they pair with the right project. Once it goes, the listing closes.

References. Species reference: Swietenia macrophylla — Wikipedia. Browse more: our Mahogany stock.