[bohemian]

Matt, Excellent post.

Some luthiers, including Paul Hostetter, say they have seen sapele in pre war Gibsons. Not inferior, just another wood that looks like, but is not, mahogany no matter how some will try to prove or rationalize that it is it. Be happy with it. Good wood. I have many planks as large as 8x10, ; been collecting sapele for a couple decades.

The next marketing ploy will be "acajou"...guarantee it. The French came up with this a couple centuries ago as a catch all for anything that looked like mahogany.. and now is widely accepted as the word for mahogany.. more to the story which goes back to Brazil in the 1600's and the timber wars between the European invading nations to Central and So America and Africa.

This isssue of sapele/mahogany is no different than the bolivian rosewood/rosewood. Fact, bolivian rosewood is not a rosewood no matter how hard some try to justify that it is. It is a beautiful wood with great properties and suitable for instruments.. hiowever, not a rosewood. Goes by many other names including pao ferro and morado, sometimes caviuna...
Caviuna another wood buzzword.. it too will be in use as will acajou.. name sounds exotic so the wood must be good. Spanish builders have been using this term for years...Caviuna...anything that looks like rosewood. Acajou.. anything that looks like mahogany.