Bubinga Wood

There's something regal about bubinga. Its scientific name is Guibourtia, three main species, demeusei, tessmannii, and pellegriniana, growing in the equatorial forests of Cameroon, Gabon, and the Congo basin, where the trees reach heights of over forty meters with trunks that can exceed a meter and a half in diameter. Out of that imposing mass comes a wood that's anything but ordinary: the heartwood ranges from pink-lavender to reddish brown with purple and black streaks, and in certain trees it develops rare figure, waterfall, pommele, quilted, that turns it into something closer to a work of art than a building material.

It's no surprise it's often called African Rosewood, even though it shares only the look and part of the acoustic character with true rosewood. In instrument making it's used for backs and sides of acoustic guitars, electric bass bodies, harps, high-end drum kits. Its Janka hardness of 2,410 lbf makes it one of the hardest woods in the instrument world altogether, dense, stable, with a rich sustain and a pronounced low end. Since 2017 it's been listed under CITES Appendix II, meaning international trade is regulated and requires specific documentation, a detail that alone tells you how precious and non-renewable this wood is in the short term.

For laser engraving it performs best with medium strokes and designs that have room to breathe, its dark tone absorbs the finest details, while on bold shapes and well-structured symbols the burned mark comes through with strength and depth, amplified by the wood's rich color.