To the extent that different woods affect the tone (which may not be much) it's probably a matter of the wood properties. Woods with similar density and Young's modulus (stiffness) tend to produce similar sound. Damping, the way the wood rings when it's tapped, ought to have some bearing as well, but so far as I've been able to tell, density seems to be more important. It's possible that damping sets a limit to what you can get, but doesn't help if you mess up and make the guitar wrong. It's distressingly easy to make a bad guitar from good wood. OTOH, a really good maker can make a good guitar out of any excuse for wood. It might be possible to get a 'rosewood' sort of sound from mahogany, particularly if it's on the dense side, but in general if you want the sound of rosewood it's easier to get if you start off with something that's like a rosewood.
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