Gibson LP body's are Maple Top Mahogany something like this?

What Godrex is politely saying is "spend 30 seconds on Google before posting a new thread."
 
I'm sorry - I didn't even realize it was a question. I just thought you were making threads just stating various things.
 
GoDrex said:
I'm sorry - I didn't even realize it was a question. I just thought you were making threads just stating various things.

Some of you guys need to understand there are people who are coming on this board who has no idea about woods paints nut, so on.
I have customers that ask me the same question over and over,I have to understand that they one do not understand something or can not grasp things. Understanding this I answer the same question over.
But that's me. Thanks.
 
I don't think he was being rude. I'm pretty sure that GD didn't understand the question because it was stated so poorly. I didn't really understand what you were asking either, because the language was so unclear.
 
tfcreative said:
I don't think he was being rude. I'm pretty sure that GD didn't understand the question because it was stated so poorly. I didn't really understand what you were asking either, because the language was so unclear.
+1
 
I agree, he was just responding to a random statement with another random statement.

A Gibson LP top is maple, as you could have learned from pretty much anywhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Les_Paul
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Divisions/Gibson%20USA/Products/LesPaul/2008-Standard/specs/
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-Custom-Shop-54-Les-Paul?sku=518460&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=26044339
http://www.zzounds.com/item--GIBLPSTU

And so forth.
 
And I'm sure some Model Ts were painted red.  But if you ask "What color is a Model T," the only correct answer is black.  And if you ask "What's the top wood on a Gibson LP," the only correct answer is maple.  :)
 
dbw said:
And I'm sure some Model Ts were painted red.  But if you ask "What color is a Model T," the only correct answer is black.  And if you ask "What's the top wood on a Gibson LP," the only correct answer is maple.   :)

Unless it's a lp custom black beauty - then you'd be wrong but hey... :laughing8:
 
tfarny said:
What Godrex is politely saying is "spend 30 seconds on Google before posting a new thread."

Amen to that Tim. :icon_thumright:
This board is littered with lame threads posted by people who treat it as a search engine.
 
So... back to yer cat... what kind of food ya givin it? <gggg>

Yes yes... Les Paul's guitar case smelled of cat food _and_maple.
 
Ron, mate, I too took your thread title as a statement rather than a question.

If you look at books on the subject, you will read that there's been a lot of conjecture about all that happened back then. The same sort of mythical conjectures applies to the Fender camp back in those days too. The fact that the main players in this period of Gibson have either passed away or getting rather old doesn't help, but folks like McCarty and Les Paul have given interviews on the subject, so the info is out there. Whether they told the truth - or embellished their own input into the creation - is another matter.

Some of things I have read about those early LPs were:

* Les Paul, himself, wanted a solid mahogany body for the lesser priced model (Gold Top) and reserved a maple top for the Custom.
* McCarty didn't want to waste figured wood like maple on bodies that were going to be painted over by solid colours (Gold Top & Black).
* The original LPs did start manufacture with all mahogany bodies but they changed sometime later (when, who knows??) to a maple top.
* (late edit) The first lot of LP Customs were all mahogany?? but the Lp 'standards' were maple capped to lighten them up, both tone wise and weight wise.

Does anyone really know all the ins and outs that happened at that time?

And remember, Gibson were not too fussed about solid body guitars and there were probably a good number of their employees who viewed building a solid body guitar as 'beneath' what Gibson were doing at the time. So record keeping, quality control and consistency in manufacture might not have been as good as in other sections of the company.

The original Les Pauls came in only one colour - Gold Top.

A little later (1955 or so), the Custom came out in black.

Until late 1957, they were the only two colours you could get for LPs, then they came out with sunbursts.

They also had a junior type of model from about 1954 that was flat topped and finished in a plain colour similar to the Fender Butterscotch Blonde. These were, I suspect, all mahogany.

So you see that it made sense to just knock out the bodies in the one wood and not use figured wood like maple when it was going to be sprayed over anyway.

The style of construction varied too, once they came out with the sunbursts. The original LPs were capped with three pieces, the most famous example of that is probably George Harrison's red LP that was used by Eric Clapton to record the lead for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". It was originally a Gold Top, and you can see the three pieces on top. Once McCarty OK'd the sunbursts they had to put a two piece cap on the guitars.

Do some digging around on Ted McCarty and Les Paul. Some of those interviews are probably up on the net somewhere.

Nowadays, the LP Standard is maple capped with a mahogany body. Funnily enough, it seems like the standard Gibson production line no longer produces the LP Custom, but they do produce the LP Supreme (maple topped, chambered mahogany body). You can get a Vintage Original Specs LP Custom, which is all mahogany though  - at a price!
 
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