Are Mahogany/rosewood Lachenal Ends The Same?

[dwinterfield]

I have a 20 button Lachenal in good restored condition with mahogany ends. From time to time on e-bay, I see 20 button rosewood Lachenals with goods ends, but otherwise in rough condition. I'm curious if the rosewood ends would fit on the mahogany body.

[Theo]

There is a good chance that the buttons would be different sizes, and you would be very lucky if the holes for the endbolts lined up accurately.

 

In general the rosewood ended Lachenals were better built and had better quality reeds compared with the mahogany models. So, if you obtained a rosewood ended one you would probably find that it played better than your mahogany one. I can't think of a good reason to do this and creat two mismatched instruments.