Millettia laurentii

Millettia laurentii is a legume tree from Africa and native to the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The species is listed as "endangered" in the IUCN Red List, principally due to destruction of its habitat and over-exploitation for timber.Wenge, a dark colored wood, is the product of Millettia laurentii. Other names sometimes used for wenge include African rosewood (ambiguous), faux ebony, dikela, mibotu, bokonge, and awong. The wood's distinctive color is standardized as a "wenge" color in many systems.

Wood

Wenge (/ˈwɛŋɡeɪ/ WENG-gay) is a tropical timber, very dark in color with a distinctive figure and a strong partridge wood pattern. The wood is heavy and hard, suitable for flooring and staircases.

Several musical instrument makers employ wenge in their products. Alembic Guitars have used this wood on numerous occasions for custom instruments. Mosrite used it for bodies of their Brass Rail models. Ibanez and Cort use it for the five-piece necks of some of their electric basses. Warwick electric basses use FSC sourced wenge for fingerboards and necks as of 2013. Conklin Guitars and Basses makes use of wenge for bodies, fingerboards and necks. Crush drums use it on their limited reserve wenge drum kit. It is also used by Yamaha as the center ply of their Absolute Hybrid Maple drums.