Carlo and I had speculated before that Gibson might be using plantation-grown mahogany from the Pacific Rim, since they don't specify Honduras mahogany in their catalogs. Wouldn't surprise me. But plantation-grown mahogany is still a lot more expensive than mahogany substitutes.
I'm using genuine mahogany these days, buying it at $8 a board foot, retail if you will. Takes about 5 b.f. to make a JAEbird. This stuff looks, works and weighs the same as the mahogany used in my vintage Gibsons. So a true mahogany blank costs ME less than $50. How cheap does genuine mahogany have to be for Gibson to use it in a $1500 bass? They should probably be paying about half what I pay.
Then there's American made TB+ pickups. How cheap do THEY have to be to put on a $500 bass?
As far as the new Epi TBird: the quality/finish on my ProIV are excellent and the bridge adjusts in 3 dimensions. The 3 point bridge on my bolt on Epi TBird is a real P.O.S. from a quality standpoint. It's made the usual way that cheaper Asian knockoffs are, reduce the amount of metal and use the tooling until it's completely worn out. A Gotoh 3 point retails for $75.