Hi everyone!
What is the real downer on most Korina replicas is in my opinion, that usually the body shape is slightly off, as well as the headstock shape and the body thickness (usually too thin, like on the Bacchus BFV58K).
Also the Pickguards are not correct most of the time, as they were 4ply on the white ones. Original V's had the neck tenon went all the way through the front pickup routing and stopped half way in between the bridge and neck pickup.
I never saw a japanese reissue which had this feature.
"Korina" was a name created by Ted McCarty and was indeed used for the wood, not the finish. McCarty told that several times in interviews with Tom Wheeler. The idea to use Limba was, that they wanted a light natural look without the need of dying or bleaching the wood. So they used Limba and clearcoated it.
Limba is by no means a rare wood, the problem is, it gets rotten and splits very soon , so it is not easy to come by pieces which are big enough to use for guitar bodies (think of an Explorer, 1piece body....).
As for the pickguard colour: Larry Meiners believes that black Pickguards were used on the early V's and white ones on later ones. What year the colour changed is not known afaik. So, at least, the early 60's Korina V's came with white guards, and the 57 prototypes with black ones, as well as most certainly all 58 V's.
Jonas