Question: I know Taylor has done really well with the Koa [Series] and was wondering why you haven’t started doing some other Hawaiian tonewood guitars. Monkey pod is just as, if not more, beautiful than koa. It also makes good tops! Another striking Hawaiian wood is mango. I’ve seen flamed mango, spalted mango, and other highly figured mango ukuleles. It is also good for tops. The monkey pod is commonly used for tikis and bowls here in Maui, as well as guitars and ukuleles. I currently own an 810ce and would love to pick up a monkey pod Grand Auditorium LTD.
Jack Rutkowsky Maui,
Hawaii

Answer: Thanks for the suggestions, Jack. Those woods would make a good guitar. I love monkey pod. Neither wood is generally available to us in the way koa is, and we buy whole logs when we buy koa. Maybe sometime we’ll pick up a monkey pod log. Mango is tough because more often than not, it’s sort of “blah” in the grain patterns. A beautiful log would have to come along, and the price would have to be right. I’ll give it some thought.