What is the body wood of my G&L Comanche?

[gravelrocks]

Hi everyone,

I bought a very nice Comanche a couple years ago. It is black with painted black headstock, ebony fingerboard, gold hardware, and pearl pickguard. I purchased it used from someone who had it specially made. Anyways I am trying to determine what the body wood is. The comanche is considerably heavier than my Legacy (alder body), so I'm wondering if the Comanche is perhaps heavy ash, maple, or mahogany? However the finish is black paint, and I know that typically ash and maple bodies would have a transparent finish.

Would anyone be able to help me with this? Has anyone ever seen a G&L that is painted a solid color that is not alder?

Thank you,
Andrew

[Craig]

Hi everyone,

I bought a very nice Comanche a couple years ago. It is black with painted black headstock, ebony fingerboard, gold hardware, and pearl pickguard. I purchased it used from someone who had it specially made. Anyways I am trying to determine what the body wood is. The comanche is considerably heavier than my Legacy (alder body), so I'm wondering if the Comanche is perhaps heavy ash, maple, or mahogany? However the finish is black paint, and I know that typically ash and maple bodies would have a transparent finish.

Would anyone be able to help me with this? Has anyone ever seen a G&L that is painted a solid color that is not alder?

Thank you,
Andrew

Your Comanche has several options included: matching headstock, ebony fingerboard and gold hardware. So, it's quite possible that it was also ordered with a Swamp Ash body. The standard build spec for Comanche bodies is: Standard and all solid finishes on Alder, all Premier finishes on Swamp Ash.
Although body wood is not a current option, customers in the past have been able to order either Alder or Swamp Ash bodies regardless of the body finish they choose.

Hope this helps.

[MrRoundel]

You might try looking at the front and back of the guitar in good lighting. Since ash generally has pretty open grain, you'll often see lines of where the finish gets sucked into the grain/pores. Other than that, it's taking off the neck and looking at the grain and color in the neck pocket. BTW: Some of these ash G&L's are very heavy. It may be because the wood is more Northern Ash than swamp ash. At least this is what I've been told by expert, finish carpenter types. My '92 S-500 weighs over 9 1/2 lbs., a real scale-tipper. Good luck.