Cedar's got a nice brownish tone. I like that maple/cedar combo option for a striking guitar visually.
I built a cedar/black walnut guitar - nice guitar. any issues were due to the builder and not the woods......   .
Seriously, as you can tell, there's a strong ethos here of "it's not the wood, it's the builder and the technique used." Over my last several guitars, I'm starting to see the wisdom of that. However, on your second guitar, I empathize with your interest in narrowing the number of variables to think about. I do think the choice of wood species matters. I've got to believe if you built two guitars as identically as you could, with African Blackwood B/S on one, and Mahogany on the other, the guitars would have a different sound (yeah, I know, there's great variablility in wood, within species. Matching tops, even from the same log, is very hard, even with deflection and density testing). Nevertheless, choice of species for back and sides is more than just visual aesthetics, right? It's an interesting point of dioscussion, anyway.
So, lets talk in generalizations (and yes, I'm opening myself to correction and controversy. Fair enough, I'm feeling my oats today.)
Cedar is less dense (in general) than spruce, and softer. You probably will need to build a bit thicker, and take great care with the top when building the guitar. Breathe on it wrong, and you'll get a ding. A spit coat of shellac once you have it thicknessed (or two) can help to minimize this, but you'll have to be very careful. Good for building good habits, anyway. (Keep chisels and sharp objects away, don't throw hammers in the workshop,etc.) Yes, I know from experience.
My experience with cedar (and others have confirmed it) is that the guitar is very "open" almost from the time you put strings on it. If Adirondack can take years to fully open up, western red cedar is the "anti- Adirondack". I've got some thoughts on this, not at all based in science, which mean that matching a very "open" top with back and sides which are extremely resonant, (maybe a very hard wood like Amazon Rosewood, or African Blackwood, etc. would require some real building chops not to end up with a guitar that sounds tinny or metallic. (I'm curious about the perspective of others who've built with these). It occurs to me that that may be why people like black walnut with cedar. It seems to me to sit midway between a rosewood and mahogany. Koa, too, is somewhere in there, midway.
On the other hand, if you want to match with a very hard wood, to drive that "piano - like" sound that the rosewoods tend to have, why not Osage Orange? Tap tone like a rosewood, cheaper, and you can still have that contrast of darker top and lighter sides (although I think they'll get a bit darker over time).
Most important. Have fun with it! Any combo you choose will work.
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Actually, koa is one of my favorites with cedar. Also Indian rosewood, but you said not that.
I was thinking of doing a Cedar/Maple 
Padma
And the darker the better on. I'd like to see a photo of the one Filippo has.
