Mango wood is native to Southeast Asia and were introduced to Hawaii around the 1820s. Though Mango tree is mostly known because of its fruit, it's also a source of beautiful and valuable lumber. Since then the wood has been used in Hawaii for furniture, wood carving, plywood, flooring, carved and turned objects. Mango is regarded as a good tonewood in the musical instrument market and luthiers commonly used it for construction of ukuleles, acoustic and electric guitars. Ukulele makers in forums and blogs usually comments that Mango is an easy tonewood to work with and it sands beautifully for furniture and music instruments, not to mention the wood offers visual variety.

Hawaiian Mango is much less expensive wood compared to Koa as it has plenty of supply worldwide. Nevertheless it is a beautiful Hawaiian hardwood, moderately heavy and relatively soft compared to other tropical hardwoods. Most of the time spalting is present in the wood and this creates kaleidoscope of colors. The color of mango wood ranges from lustrous blond to golden brown, frequently showing mottled color variation acquired during drying and sometimes the color of heartwood can be dark or golden brown. When it comes to grain patterns, it varies from straight to wavy but often has a pronounced curly or “fiddleback” figure.

The tonal qualities of Mango wood may resemble Koa a bit because they both produce warm sounds and good bright tones. Mango wood gives off a perfectly balanced tone with deep resonating bass, exceptional good mid-range, and long-lasting sustain. Furthermore, it is tonally close to Mahogany due to warm mids while maintaining rich trebles and lows but Mango wood still has a slightly softer sound.