80s mahogny Gibson ES-175 vs early 70s no volute ES-175

[Little Jay]

it does have the appearance of mahogany in the grain, but I can't say for sure.

Definitly a one off from the days when you could contact Gibson and say

Hello, I would like a left handed 175 in antique burst, great (shaw) pickups, shielded pots, mahogany construction, thin neck depth, oh and put the pickup by the neck cuz it sounds best there.

No problem sir.

Cool!

I checked Adrian Ingram's ES-175 book and he states that after '89 Gibson changed the laminates and all 175s came with a laminate that had mahogany outer layers, but he doesn't state for how long that lasted (because obviously later models have maple again on the outside). So if your's is from around then it probably is mahogany.

(I like to pettifog about these unimportant details )

[Franz 1997]

Not to knock adrian's 175 book, but there are some inaccuracies and omissions in there.