How much alder is in the body of 2000 MIK Les Paul Standard?

[mindstealer]

I know during this time they were being listed as Mahogany/Alder bodies. My question is is the body more Alder or Mahogany? I have heard they were mostly Alder with a layer of mahogany over. Anybody with any real experience that can chime in? Any help would be appreciated.

[theboatcandream]

I have a MIK les paul from 2000 or 2001. It's a mahogany back with an alder top and flame maple veneer.

[Whitmore Willy]

Mindstealer,

 

Welcome to the forum.

In the early 2000's many of the L.P.s came from several plants in Korea. Included among them were Saein, Samick and Unsung.

They were listed as Mahogany/Alder as I believe their build was contingent on availability of wood.

If I remember correctly, you could pick up several (even from the same factory) and not find two that weighed

the same. Often not even close. Hope this helps.

[LordNelson2U]

I know during this time they were being listed as Mahogany/Alder bodies. My question is is the body more Alder or Mahogany? I have heard they were mostly Alder with a layer of mahogany over. Anybody with any real experience that can chime in? Any help would be appreciated.

 

It was explained at the time (c.2002) that guitars that had maple caps such as Standards would have an alder body with the 1/2" maple cap and an ultra-thin (1/32") cosmetic maple veneer cap where a guitars without a cap and an opaque color such aa Custom would be made of solid mahogany. The prior common thinking was that a guitar would have a mahogany body with an alder cap in addition to a cosmetic maple veneer but it turned out to be that the bodies were either solid mahogany with no cap or veneer or an alder body with a maple cap and a cosmetic veneer so it wasn't actually the case of a sandwich-type body as once used by Norlin in the dark days of the 70's. Another factor confusing things is that the species of mahogany used in these guitars is very light in color ranging from blondish to even some tan and the color of the alder used was very close to this color with shades from blond to tan to even shades of green. The common perception of mahogany as being a reddish-colored wood comes from our familiarity with it where it was used in furniture after being dyed to suggest cherry wood, It does sometime appear as reddish in tone but is usually a blond to tan when naturally occurring so hence a confusion about which wood is which

 

Lord Nelson

[Goldie]

The body on my '04(I) 56GTRI is "Mahogany", with an Alder cap. It was nice to see that the "Mahogany" part of the body is only 2 pieces, nicely matched with no veneer covering it, as evidenced by checking the end grain under a strong light. YMMV

[mindstealer]

Thanks for the responses. The only reason I was asking was because I had the opportunity to pick up a Epi Les Paul Standard made in 2000 and I was wondering about the alder situation. I actually ended up picking up 2 new Epi's today though. I got the 2000 MIK Standard and a 2005 MIK Custom with Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro II's. This makes Epi's number 5 and 6 for me. It is joining an Epi Goth Les Paul, Goth SG, PR-200 acoustic, and a Les Paul Standard.

[theboatcandream]

 

It was explained at the time (c.2002) that guitars that had maple caps such as Standards would have an alder body with the 1/2" maple cap and an ultra-thin (1/32") cosmetic maple veneer cap where a guitars without a cap and an opaque color such aa Custom would be made of solid mahogany. The prior common thinking was that a guitar would have a mahogany body with an alder cap in addition to a cosmetic maple veneer but it turned out to be that the bodies were either solid mahogany with no cap or veneer or an alder body with a maple cap and a cosmetic veneer so it wasn't actually the case of a sandwich-type body as once used by Norlin in the dark days of the 70's. Another factor confusing things is that the species of mahogany used in these guitars is very light in color ranging from blondish to even some tan and the color of the alder used was very close to this color with shades from blond to tan to even shades of green. The common perception of mahogany as being a reddish-colored wood comes from our familiarity with it where it was used in furniture after being dyed to suggest cherry wood' date=' It does sometime appear as reddish in tone but is usually a blond to tan when naturally occurring so hence a confusion about which wood is which

 

Lord Nelson[/quote']

 

My korean epiphone has a mahogany back and an alder top with a maple veneer.

[Ricochet]

Anyone notice Epiphone changed the specs of the bodywood? All Les Pauls are mahogany now. Except for the Special 2 (basswood), and the 100, plus top and Ultra(maple top).

[Mustang Martigan]

On 2/21/2009 at 1:32 AM, LordNelson2U said:

 

It was explained at the time (c.2002) that guitars that had maple caps such as Standards would have an alder body with the 1/2" maple cap and an ultra-thin (1/32") cosmetic maple veneer cap where a guitars without a cap and an opaque color such aa Custom would be made of solid mahogany. The prior common thinking was that a guitar would have a mahogany body with an alder cap in addition to a cosmetic maple veneer but it turned out to be that the bodies were either solid mahogany with no cap or veneer or an alder body with a maple cap and a cosmetic veneer so it wasn't actually the case of a sandwich-type body as once used by Norlin in the dark days of the 70's. Another factor confusing things is that the species of mahogany used in these guitars is very light in color ranging from blondish to even some tan and the color of the alder used was very close to this color with shades from blond to tan to even shades of green. The common perception of mahogany as being a reddish-colored wood comes from our familiarity with it where it was used in furniture after being dyed to suggest cherry wood, It does sometime appear as reddish in tone but is usually a blond to tan when naturally occurring so hence a confusion about which wood is which

 

Lord Nelson

Cool info, Lord. Do you happen to know when Epi switched from Mahogany bodies to the mix w Alder?

I found an Epi catalog from '95 and all the LP Standards are listed having Mahogany bodies and Flame Maple tops. There was also a section at the end previewing the '96 models; those LP Std bodies were listed as Mahogany/Alder.

Could the wood mix have started in '96, or was Epi always switching woods throughout the years?

Thanks.

[RobinTheHood]

10 hours ago, Mustang Martigan said:

Cool info, Lord. Do you happen to know when Epi switched from Mahogany bodies to the mix w Alder?

I found an Epi catalog from '95 and all the LP Standards are listed having Mahogany bodies and Flame Maple tops. There was also a section at the end previewing the '96 models; those LP Std bodies were listed as Mahogany/Alder.

Could the wood mix have started in '96, or was Epi always switching woods throughout the years?

Thanks.

This thread is 11 years old and that person is no longer a member of this forum.

However,  I'm not certain that the info he provided is accurate. Epiphone has always listed the set neck Les Paul as having a mahogany body.  Asian mahogany (lauan or nato), to be more specific. Epiphone was contracting out to many factories at that time, so th possibility of something like alter being used as a short term substitute for mahogany is possible, but not the norm. Epiphone never specifies anything other than mahogany for the set necks at any time, with the exception of some limited runs. Bouncing between mahogany,  alter or maple was common on guitars like the Les Paul Special, LP100, junior and some other low end models. Some even had mahogany/alter laminated/ply  bodies. This was very common for a time. But the set necks never had this type of construction and if be hard pressed to believe that they used anything other than Asian mahogany as the main body wood, again, with the exception of other substitutes when the mahogany ran out before the run was complete.