History of the Pancake style mandolin

  1. Jim MacDaniel
    Jim MacDaniel
    I tried doing a little research on the history of this style of mandolin online from time to time, but came up with very little. From what I've gathered, I think the design originated with the Gibson Alrite in the early 1900's, and during the final years of WWI, Gibson produced a spared down version of the Alrite, sans binding and purfling, and sold it in Army and Navy Exchanges to service members for $12.00. After that, production of the Alrite and Army/Navy seems to have ceased altogether, in favor of Gibson's carved-top A-style models.

    Anyone out there have more definitive history and timeline of the Alrite and Army/Navy models? And did this design languish until Flatiron revived it in the 1980's?
  2. Bill Snyder
    Bill Snyder
    Well, they were not identical but the Kalamazoo KM-11 was a flat top with a round hole similar to the A/N. It did however have shoulders. The one pictured is supposed to be from 1935.
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