Anyone know what wood his might be?

[Mylkinut]

Just a quick question - my brother managed to get this Epi Black Beauty as a project for next to nothing.

The original owner sanded off the black finish, and my bro says it looks like there might be a maple veneer on top of the mahogany. Judging from the pictures I think he's right, but the Epi site doesn't mention anything about a maple cap or veneer.

Have a look at the pictures and see what you reckon - he just wants to know what he's got to work with in terms of finishing it.

http://postimg.org/gallery/1xb59pey

He's taken a shot of the lower horn where it looks like whatever's on top has been sanded through to reveal the mahogany below.

Cheers

[PlungerModerno]

Hard to say - it could be maple, or a similar pale wood. From the upper horn pic it does look like a the cap wood has been sanded through - but it could be a little knot or other oddity often hidden with a solid colour finish.

Cool project - with some work it should be an awesome guitar.

[hamfist]

Difficult to tell. Those are awful pics where you can't even see the grain.

[mrdreadful]

I would imagine it quite likely that pre-binding/pre-routing most Epi bodies are made the same as it'll be cheaper to do all the same basic shape in bulk and then route, paint, etc. as required.

[MilkyBarKid]

I'd agree with maple - or possibly a bleached mahogany. Sometimes mahogany isn't sufficiently homogeneous in colour and in that case they might bleach it before staining it back to mahogany colour. Someone could have sanded through the bleatched bit - it doesn't look like it's been sanded through a top layer of wood - I'd expect to see a bit more feathering. Better 'photos would help.