90s Ce24 identification

Nice guitar. Just know they are built better than the new offerings. But those tuners were designed to never make you want to change your strings again. I like those as much as I like beets.
 
Serial Number 2890 pegs it at 1990. Original black finish on the top, WT RF - Wide Thin Rosewood Fretboard.
Neck plate is not original and looks painted over, original plates had the serial number stamped on them by then.
I am going to venture an educated guess that it actually is maple top, because of the binding (most all-alders I seen like mine have no binding).
Also, I suspect it might have been a refin on the back only, but some of the grain seen through the back finish hints at mahogany.
Scraping a bit of pain inside the pickup cavity should confirm the maple cap or not.

Edit - there seems to be a more pronounced line in the finish inside the pickup cavity, may not be anything but tends to point to maple cap.
 
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Serial Number 2890 pegs it at 1990. Original black finish on the top, WT RF - Wide Thin Rosewood Fretboard.
Neck plate is not original and looks painted over, original plates had the serial number stamped on them by then.
I am going to venture an educated guess that it actually is maple top, because of the binding (most all-alders I seen like mine have no binding).
Also, I suspect it might have been a refin on the back only, but some of the grain seen through the back finish hints at mahogany.
Scraping a bit of pain inside the pickup cavity should confirm the maple cap or not.

Edit - there seems to be a more pronounced line in the finish inside the pickup cavity, may not be anything but tends to point to maple cap.
Might not be nefarious, and it could be a mongrel of parts?

The first two years of CEs had no serial on the neck plate but had them on the headstock, so maybe someone was swapping necks?

Also, there are a pile of Rush fans that have to have a black alder CE like Alex’s and it coulda been just 8 screws and two CEs to make their LARPing dreams come true.
 
Well, there's no hiding the fanboi after this, as if my username wasn't enough. I did have to Google LARPing though... A lot of those people wear pointy ears :)

Lifeson auctioned off all 3 of his earlier CE24s and they listed the serial numbers and the backplate pictures:

Sunburst 1990 CE24: 1877 (plain back plate with stamped serial number) sold $50 000
Sunburst 1990 CE24: 2396 (single coil at bridge, plain back plate with stamped serial number) sold $50 000
Black 1991 CE24: 4186 (PRS neck plate) sold $112 500

So OP's guitar pre-dates Lifeson's black CE. As for parts being swapped, that is quite possible even at the factory. On mine, the body and neck plate serial numbers don't match, and I know for sure it is all-original.

$50 000 buys a lot of pointy ears...

 
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