RotcanX

Note that the American-made guitar has a two-screw TRC. The Korean one has the usual three-screw TRC.

Basically, it's one of the 2005 'Guitar of the Month' models, so, yes, it's definitely an LE.

Nice work. Should look great in black.

You can check the offerings at www.stewmac.com but that is the old-style Samick bridge which may not be compatible with true tune-o-matic units. You may find that you have to re-do the inserts that the posts screw in to (i.e. pull the existing inserts, fill the holes with dowels and re-drill for new inserts) in order to get a proper TOM bridge to fit.

It was only a Broadcaster for about a year. They changed it to Telecaster in 1951. Which meant you got a lot of 1951 'Nocasters' while they waited for the new decals to be made.

Masonite is sawdust and glue. Note that some early Telecasters were made of pine.

Nothing new about making guitars from composite materials. Ampeg did that way back in the seventies. I owned a couple of these at various times back in the late seventies/early eighties... Plexiglas body ('lucite'); 24-fret neck (the bolts are under the pickguard, amazing uper fret access), and one interchangeable pickup (there were seven different styles you could buy). Volume, tone, and a switch that shorted the tone cap for full bass in position one, did nothing in the middle, and overrode the volume control in the third position.

No, I'm afraid I can't agree with that. I've posted full information on this previously. In a nutshell, these woods are from completely unrelated species and they are only considered as 'mahoganies' from a trade definition point of view; as far as the lumber industry is concerned they're not even close. Anyone who has marginal experience with the genuine mahoganies can tell at a glance that these woods are not related and are similar to mahogany in only the barest superficial sense. The quarter grain, for example, is completely different and completely lacks the delicate figuring of genuine mahogany.

Gibson uses Honduras mahogany pretty much exclusively. They wouldn't be caught dead using the Indonesian stuff.

No, fake one-dollar bills is right. As opposed to twenties where you get some return on your investment.

Unfortunately that won't help at all. It's far too easy to generate a legitimate serial number for an Epiphone and I don't believe Epiphone keeps detailed records as to which models have which serials... all they can tell you is that the number is legit even though the guitar might not be. No, it's a little more difficult than that.

I think I see what you're getting at. Now that's what I call thinking outside the box. Excellent.