From Dave Collins when asked about this:
Gibson mostly used what they had laying around on the floor....
Most of the time it was maple although they did on occasion use spruce and even poplar at times. The spruce started around the time that they started producing low end, ladder braced instruments but again it was a function of what was kicking around the shop.Obviously "configuration control" was not something that G*bson subscribed to all that much.....
Where we live and have our shop is pretty close to where G*bson started out and as such our area has lots of "employee guitars." Employee guitars were made out of seconds and dumpster diving parts and often look very G*bsonesque but lack the logo. We see these pushed as G*bson's at times too and they kind of sort of are but just the same kind of sort of are not either...
When I don't know what the heck G*bson did I am reminded of Cheech and Chong...
What look like....
Look like Maple to me....
What smell like....
What.....?
Smell like Maple to me...
And so on and so forth....