I once bought a 2000 (MIK) epiphone les paul custom off ebay that weighed 6.5 pounds.... I opened up the back control cavity panel and looked inside... I even sanded down a small section to get the true wood color.... The wood was a blonde/pale yellow color... I also saw the same color in the wire tunnel that goes between the pots and pickups...
I could only guess that we had a solid alder les paul... Boy, was I pissed off... Anyway, I flipped that guitar and now I am planning on buying a 2007 Epi les paul custom ....
I have heard from guitar shops and Gibson themselves that all 2007 Epi les paul customs have a mahogany body... NO ALDER... But I have read from time to time that epiphone does what they damn well please concerning the les paul woods.... and that your les paul will be like a box of chocolates... What do you all think ? Can I trust Gibson that the les paul will be nice and heavy and have a mahogany body ??
Another thing of interest... I once owned a 1999 Epi dot that had outstanding tone... When I changed out the pickups I noticed the center block was made of a splintery reddish brown wood that looked to me like mahogany... According to Gibson, they always used maple for the center blocks... But with what I saw and the fact that dot was pretty darn heavy, I concluded that they had used mahogany for the center block...
Go figure...