Maple in teens A model

[bgmando]

A friend of mine recently showed me his mid-teens Gibson A model. I was struck by extra crispness and clarity in the sound. As I looked it over, the sides had tiger stripe like maple. The back looked more like birch, but could pass for non-grained maple.
My old A1 I'm sure is birch by the figure. And I thought they all were from that era.

But did some of them have maple in sides, or back, or both?

[sunburst]

Gibson is know for having done a lot of things that are "strange" or "don't match catalog description" or whatever. They used both maple and birch in the teens, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a mandolin with birch back and maple sides, or any or several mixtures of woods.