Doheny V12 Okoume vs Ash vs Alder

[Pork Rind]

Hi friends. I bought a V12 a couple years ago, largely based on advice given here. I love it second only to maybe my ‘95 Legacy. I was browsing around the registry a bit ago, in part to see if I had remembered to enter it (I did). Well browsing, I noticed that the body wood has changed a few times over the years. Mine’s okoume, but I also se pine and basswood mixed in in the timeframe mine was made. More recently, I noticed that they default either to alder or ash. Just curious if there’s ever been any word from the folks at the factory as to why they switch these up? Is it a supply chain thing or varying cost of raw materials or something else?

[Tooslowhand]

My understanding is the factory uses ash or alder depending on color by default, but the customer can specify which they prefer, and other wood like Okume can be specified as an option.

[Pork Rind]

Yeah, that’s been common for many of their instruments for a long time now. But the V12 was Okoume only (or at least mostly, there are some pine or basswood bodies in the registry)for the first several years. So at some point they dropped okoume. Just wondering why.

[sam]

As I recall the first run was going to be a limited run of 15 Okoume old school tobacco sunburst and 15 basswood Pharoah gold. The standard run now appears to be alder and swamp ash depending on one of four colors, but I have seen Okoume bodies from 2022. As Tooslowhand said okoume may be available as a custom order. Original limited run was 2017-19 don’t know when it became a standard line. I picked up an original run Okoume old school tobacco sunburst a year or so ago and it is an absolutely killer guitar, and this is from a hard core ASAT guy.

[Pork Rind]

As I recall the first run was going to be a limited run of 15 Okoume old school tobacco sunburst and 15 basswood Pharoah gold. The standard run now appears to be alder and swamp ash depending on one of four colors, but I have seen Okoume bodies from 2022. As Tooslowhand said okoume may be available as a custom order. Original limited run was 2017-19 don’t know when it became a standard line. I picked up an original run Okoume old school tobacco sunburst a year or so ago and it is an absolutely killer guitar, and this is from a hard core ASAT guy.

Yeah, when I bought mine in spring 2022, they were in volume production with okoume. Based on what I recall from browsing Sweetwater, I don't think they switched to ash/alder until 2024, but it's hard to tell 'cause most of the recent registry entries are without any dates.

[glvourot]

I bought mine in the summer of 2020 and it was Okoume or Basswood as the only non custom options. It's a blue one ( okoume )that featured on one of the promo's for the model. Solid guitar and I love the pick ups. I am going to block the bridge at some point though so it can handle drop D a little better.

[Challenger]

When the V12 first came out, there was only two finishes. Old school tobacco with Okoume and Pharaoh gold with basswood. There were no options for the first year or two (outside of custom shop). Around January of 2020 they introduced clear blue and clear red. All four colors had chechen fingerboards and the red and blue had okoume bodies. There were three known clear blue prototypes made in swamp ash when first introduced. Two were sold in the USA and one was shipped to Japan. The first one in clear blue was shown at the January 2020 NAMM show and had a maple fingerboard (only V12 at the time to have maple). I bought that one and still have it. It was also supposed to be a catalog photo guitar. Around that time, I believe there was a shortage of swamp ash so the decision was to use okoume for the clear blue instead of swamp ash. Later on they offered sunset coral and pearl gray with pine bodies and maple fingerboards. More recently the V12 was added to the option order menu. So, I believe now anything is possible within the option order menu.