Epiphone Les Paul question...

[Katastrophe]

I was looking at these today, and the body material on the LP Custom was listed as mahogany/alder.

Does this mean the body is like a mahogany/alder laminate, like plywood, or is it a layer of mahogany, a carved alder top, with a maple veneer?

That has always been a little confusing to me. Thanks for the replies!

[Tone2TheBone]

Kata - The body is mahogany and the cap on top of that is alder.

[Spudman***]

Most of the times they come with a mahogany neck. Some models do have alder bodies. Others are mahogany with a maple cap. I've never heard of a ply Epi Les Paul. I don't think there are any.

I think on that guitar(custom) it is an alder body.

[Tone2TheBone]

Kata - Also it would seem that the "flame" modeled custom sports a "flame maple top" to add further confusion......but I'm thinking that the solid colored customs are of the mahogany body with alder cap variety based on some ad descriptions I've seen. At any rate I like the wine colored custom and the flame maple custom from the website. I also really liked the limited edition custom plus on the musiciansfriend website.

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[Danzego]

or is it a layer of mahogany, a carved alder top, with a maple veneer?

Bingo. It's a mahogany body (not necessarily one solid piece) with the alder top and flame maple veneer.

Oh, and make sure you get to play the one you plan on buying. I went in to check out the Wine Red and Cherryburst customs and ended up putting a regular Standard on layaway, instead (which I'll be picking up on my birthday in a couple of weeks here). The Customs I tried just didn't play well at all. The action was set a little high on one and was getting fret buzz while the other was just set real high (probably to counter even worse fret buzz). While that might be able to be fixed with a pro setup, it might not. I figured why take the chance and instead grabbed a standard that played like a dream right out of the box for 200 bucks less.

The point is, quality seems to vary from guitar to guitar, and while it's true for many brands, Epi's are like that as much if not more. But when you get a winner, you definitely got a winner.


Oh, and that schmancy gold hardware? It rubs off and gets to looking pretty nasty.

[guitaro]

• Tuners : Grover
• Fingerboard : Rosewood
• Neck : 1-pc Mahogany, 22 fret
• Neck Joint : Set, 16th fret
• Nut : 1-11/16", Bone
• Scale : 24-3/4"
• Top : Book-Matched Maple
• Back : Book-Matched African Mahogany
• Rhythm PU : 50SR (Gibson-made USA Humbucker)
• Treble PU : 60ST (Gibson-made USA Humbucker)
• Controls : 2-V, 2-T; 3-Way Pickup Selector
• Machine heads : Grover
• Hardware : 24k Gold
• Finishes : Ebony, Alpine White, Wine Red