I have made several padouk guitars. I can vouch the woods sonic properties. The stuff sounds great. If you like to tap wood, (probably you do if you post here) you will find that it makes a nice metallic clank like taping Brazilian or HOnduran Rosewood.
It really is hard to bend the sides. They don't seem to relax with ordinary heat settings. I had success with getting the wood nearly to the scorching temp and even then, expect some springback. (if you have a really strong external mold you can pull it back to shape
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Wade Lowe in Atlanta used to make classical guitars with Brazilian bodies and Padouk tops. Very interesting instruments. The sounded good, perhaps not as loud as a spruce topped classical, but they were well balanced with a complex tone. Classicals have less energy in the strings than steel so it would be an interesting experiment to see how padouk works with steel strings. I imagine it would certainly be no worse than mahog or koa and if kept thin enough, perhaps better.