1920's Gibson mandolin

[Steven Wilson]

I am no mando expert and have what was said to be a 1920's Gibson A-3 mandolin in that the fret board has kicked up badly on the treble side at the body joint. The case looks right but alot of the mandolin is suspect. The headstock logo is a decal(a deal braker for me but I want to be sure). The headstock vaneer is paint, the rosette is very sloppy, the fret ends are all over the place(could be a bad fret job), and there is a wedge under the fretboard extension over the body(led to the kick-up). The label is very brittle but there are no desernable numbers on it. I was wondering if there was some "sudent model" I am unaware of. The owner just wants a playable instrament, but before I pull the FB I'd like to be sure-the whole do no harm thing.

Thanks
Steven

[Steven Wilson]

A few more pics

[Steven Wilson]

One more

Thanks
Steven

[Michael Lewis]

Definitely 1922 or later because it has a truss rod. Paddle head A model. The celluloid binding material is deteriorating, which is mostly what you see in the rosette deformation. Needs a neck reset to get rid of the wedge. There should be a ink stamped number somewhere on the inside, at the neck block or along the treble side. It will be a FON (factory order number) and the instrument can be dated from that number. The label appears unreadable and very fragile.

[Mario Proulx]

Agree; it all looks "correct" to me, too.

I'd carefully pull the fretboard, and then steam-out the neck and reset it; it has shifted slightly, creating the hump. The dovetail should release easily, since it's showing signs of having shifted....

If the owner is on a very tight budget, and the dovetail appears solid, then you --might-- be able to carefully plane the neck and body wedge(after pulling the fretboard) and the bottom of the fretboard, then re-glue the fretboard and perhaps re-fret it. I would take advantage of having the fretboard off the instrument, and re-fret it while it was off, so I could do a very good job of seating the frets and removing any and all tension from the fretting(in other words, I'd re-flatten the fretboard after fretting). No pounding on the delicate mandolin that way, also....

[Steven Wilson]

Thanks for the replies
I'm not that familiar with vintage mandolins and the headstock logo looks very cheesy. You can clearly see the edge of it under the finish. My plan was to just pull the FB and level the neck and wedge. I'll see how solid the neck feels with the FB removed. The owner only paid a few hundred for it and isn't looking to put a whole lot in it, just make it a player. I will refret it for him. It looks like someone pulled the frets and put them back on out of order. They seem to be random lengths and none of the string wear lines up with the strings. I did find a stamp on the neck block. Very hard to read but I think it is 9172.
Thanks again
Steven

[Michael Lewis]

Spann's Guide to Gibson says that is for an "A" model of 1928 vintage. So there you go.

[Steven Wilson]

Thanks Michael.

[Clay Schaeffer]

One thing to remember about old guitars and mandolins is that most were made as a production item and decals and superfluous elements were of less concern to the average musician. When the instruments became "vintage" we began to notice some of the crudities of the less expensive models. The fretboard wedge and realigned frets were probably a "budget" attempt to make the old thing playable before it became a "vintage collectable". <g>

[Steven Wilson]

The FB came off very easily and the dove tail seems tight. The wedge under the fret board over the body is just made of shims and what seems like putty. I am wondering if anyone knows if the wedge is supposed to be there. Nothing is lose or shifted have shifted and it seems to be designed to have a support over the body. The main issue is the FB has cracked and started to cup.
Thanks
Steven

[Steven Wilson]

Thanks for all the replies. This is a fun link- but I'm a bit confused about a single action truss rod after seeing page 12.

http://www.acousticmusic.org/userfiles/ ... og%20Q.pdf

[Steven Wilson]

An interesting thing on the fret board- all the markers are off just a bit. At the 15th fret, the fret covered a part of the dot. It looks like the dot was drilled after the fret or someone carefully filed the fret to uncover the dot.

[Michael Lewis]

This is a good opportunity to replace the fingerboard with an accurately fretted one. Make it look like the original as much as possible. That is AFTER the neck re-set. You should be shooting for a bridge height of about 3/4" or so, maybe a bit higher but not much lower.

[Mario Proulx]

Steven, what you're uncovering is that Gibson --wasn't-- making top-quality instruments. Somewhere in history, it's been forgotten that Gibson's early target market was the student market. What you have there is perfectly normal for the vintage; poor intonations, poorly-placed markers, etc... In other words, old Gibsons weren't that great....

[Clay Schaeffer]

I had a Gibson O artist model guitar of a similar vintage. It was a relatively finely made instrument, definitely not a "student" instrument. I think Gibson was trying to build for all the markets, just as they are doing now. The difference is that today they use other brand names so as not to diminish the Gibson name.

[Steven Wilson]

Just for an update
I made a new fret board for it and sent it on it's way.
Thanks for the replies.
Steven