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Mahogany


Bozz

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I love the golden yellow color of mine too! Inside the sound hole, the unfinished wood has the classic reddish brown tone you would expect mahogany to have. But the outside is a beautiful golden color that is pretty unusual compared to most mahogany backs, sides and necks. I think Gibson must apply a yellow, or gold stain instead of the typical dark brown grain fillers. I was just curious if anyone knows exactly what they are using.

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Some Mahoganies just have a WONDERFUL smell to them…….like Honduran Mahogany….Visually I like the tight even grain of the old Martin Mahoganies…I've seen some great tight grain like that on some Collings…..all my Gibson's have dark, almost black stain on the Mahogany, so I can't see the grain unless I look into the sound hole….grain looks pretty good though…wonder why they stain it so dark??

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Hi Owf,

 

I had that same "wonder" some time back. I'm reckoning that Gibson stains the mahogany dark so as to blend with the black outer bands of their classic sunbursts? My J 50, being a natural top, has very light back and sides.

 

I have also noticed over the years that what happens one day at the factory might not happen another: last year, I was at luthier Herb Key's shop getting some help with my Gurian. Herb had a few guitars he was working on. One was a KG 14--with a beautiful light brown back and sides. I had never seen one with anything but the dark stain.

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I think one of the things going on is that traditionalist geezers like me who have been playing Gibsons for 40 or 50 years or more are just not used to these new fangled color schemes. Hey, give us 20 years of the light skins and bleached necks on the J-35 and we will probably not even blink an eye at them.

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