Is There A Solid Mahogany Version of the H157?

[Gitfiddler]

Unless I am mistaken, all of the H157's I've seen have Maple caps on Mahogany bodies.

 

Have any of you guy seen or heard of a solid Mahogany version of the H157 (ala Gibson Custom)?

 

Here's what I thinkin' bout...or with Soap Bars maybe...?

 

http://www.music123.com/Gibson-Custom-Shop...149823.Music123

[Thundersteel]

Maybe if you order one...

 

Regarding the link to Music123--I've never understood why Gibbo uses those cheap-a$$ Klusons!

[Kazwell]

Interestingly, Les Paul himself hated the maple cap on his signature guitars. In the 50's Gibson comprimised and made sure the Custom was solid mahogany. When Gibson re-introduced the LP as we know it in the sixties after a 7 year hiatus, they decided to put the maple cap  on all the LP models INCLUDING the Customs.

 

Now, the custom shop is sticking to the VOS model by leaving the 50's style Customs all mahogany (which works out great for them because they can charge more with less material costs). Although there is still that MOP issue, which for some reason they are taking liberties with, or does anybody know if in fact they put real MOP on the Custom VOS models? I would be surprised if they did.

 

I know as another cost measure for themselves and the consumers who can't afford to lay down even 1200 on a new LP Studio, they have a stock Standard Mahogany model that will run you about 700 new on E-Bay. I am surprised no one in their marketing department has come up with an angle on this model and advertise it as "The Standard Mahogany, The Guitar Les Wanted Us to Make in the First Place!"

[JohnCovach]

In the Hembree book on Ted McCarty that I posted about on another thread, there's a great discussion on how they developed the maple top.  The first thing was that they wanted a carved top, because that was something Fender could not do and a carved top made it clear that a Gibson solid body would be more than a slab of wood.  They wanted as much sustain as they could get, but they also didn't want the guitar to be too heavy.  So they made several bodies, each with different proportions of mahogany and maple and settled on the current arrangement.  They decided on using colors rather than sunburst, partly to keep Fender and others from figuring out how the body was put together.  Les Paul suggested black for the standard and gold for the custom, but Gibson did it the opposite way around!  I had forgotten about the solid mahogany LP, but it's also kinda funny that when Gibson introduced the LP/SG, it was solid mahogany but Les hated it!  Hembree gives some shocking figures about the early SG's: a high number of these were returned with broken necks.

[Gitfiddler]

Les Paul also hated the SG Custom that had his name on the truss rod cover.  And now he mostly plays a beater LP Recorder model with low impedance pickups.  No 'custom shop, signature, historic, reissue, flamey-top, VOS model for him! 

 

Ya gotta love that man!!

 

Anyway, yes, I guess I could special order either an H150 or H157 with a Mahogany carve top.  But I could have sworn I saw or heard about a Heritage Mahogany LP style model.  However my memory is........well, um, what was I writing about anyway?!  :-