How does a Gibson A-5 "Lump Scroll" differ from an F model

[your_diamond]

I was shopping eBay for a pre-Loar model A and ran across this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/gibson-mando...item3ce63af80f

Wondering how this compares to an F-5?
Could it really have the "warm tone an "A" style mandolin & with the projection of "F" style", as the seller states?
Does it have a raised fretboard or a carved top?
What else differs?

[sunburst]

Could it really have the "warm tone an "A" style mandolin & with the projection of "F" style", as the seller states?

In a word, "no".
Those things were made back when Gibson forgot how to make mandolins. They had forms for the body outline but didn't want to spend the extra bucks to carve a scroll, so the Micky Mouse ear was the result. They were among the poorest quality mandolins Gibson ever made, and every one I've seen (admittedly, only a few, after all, as the seller says, "You won't find on[sic] like this just anywhere") was over-built with a thick top and back.
As for how it compares to an F5, the oval sound hole is the big difference between it and the f-holes of the F5. As for quality differences, well, that depends greatly on when the F5 was built, but a random F5 is likely to be a better mandolin considering how many have been made over so many years, including years when Gibson was actually trying to build mandolins of good quality.

[samlyman]

Listen to John! I have never seen a "lumpie" that was worth having. You would be much better off with the least expensive Kentucky. This is not meant as a Kentucky put-down - I have a KM 950 and it is a fine mandolin.

[Kowboy]

I had one, I believe it was made in 1972. Not much volume to it. Definitely not for bluegrass. The music shop called it a Micky Mouse Ear as John H. has stated.

[JeffD]

In a word, "no"..

Just to clarify - the inferiority of the Gibson lump scrolls is due to the inferiority of every mandolin they were making at the time. The lump scroll is just an indicator of the period of construction. The lump itself does not make it sound poor. One could not improve the instrument significantly by merely removing the lump.

Right?

[JeffD]

There is a decent mandolin method book, or is it a mandolin chord book, I forget, with a lump scroll on the front.

[sunburst]

The lump itself does not make it sound poor. One could not improve the instrument significantly by merely removing the lump.

Right?

Right, but it would be a start!
Sound-wise, removing the scroll wouldn't make any particular difference, design-wise, anything would be an improvement!

[your_diamond]

One has to wonder how the finest mandolin maker "forgot how to make them", then I remembered what happened to Gibson's guitars during that time... the dreaded Norlin era. Thank you all for your help. This is a very useful site

[JeffD]

Right, but it would be a start!

At a local town council meeting we were discussing some unintended consequences of some poorly thought out procedures. Folks wanted someone's head on a stick, likely the chair of the particular committee involved, and I argued that the problem was the procedures in place. The response was, "well firing so and so would be a good start."

[Mandoplumb]

Not only the worst sounding but also the ugliest mandolin Gibson ever made.

[mandroid]

Not doing the band-sawing out of the scroll is a shortcut ,
that they also didn't do much more to voice the soundboard

but perhaps as their production pattern router'd blanks were,
which may have been a bit thick used as is..

so not that responsive , does have a consistency labor time cuts for cost reductions..

Maybe drilling a hole will get the strap hager function Back..

[Willie Poole]

All of these mandolins can be filed under the word..."JUNK".....Some one might just get a kick out of owning a Gibson instrument but these are nothing that go anywhere near doing any justice to the Gibson name...

I share this opinion with just about all of the hundreds of people that have played or heard one...

Willie

[Ivan Kelsall]

I remember seeing one over here in the UK years ago, & for me,even as a non-mando.player at the time,you could have got more tone from a plank. From the comments above it would seem that their mere existence doesn't do the Gibson name any justice. Definitely a bad era for the Gibson Co.,
Ivan

[almeriastrings]

That's a strange coincidence, as I also ran into one in the UK. Cannot remember the exact year, but maybe 12 years or so back? Possibly earlier... I do remember it sounded like it was stuffed full of old socks and had no volume at all. A 'lump' describes it very well - in all respects! It could well have been the same one Ivan ran into as I doubt there are many floating around there.

[nickster60]

I agree with the "Stuffed with Socks" analogy. The first time I played one I had the same reaction. A low end Kentucky would sound like bullhorn compared to one those "Lumpys".

[AlanN]

I saw and played one about 25 years ago in Manny's in NYC. I think it was the oval (offal?) hole variety, with some sort of pick-up on it. The sales gal plugged it in for me, I doodled on it a bit, set it down and walked out of the store. She literally ran outside onto the street, begging me to buy it. I kept a-walkin'...

[your_diamond]

Manny's Music! Oh don't get me started... too late. Bought a Black P-bass there 40 years ago, I lived one block north (49th St) & you could walk through the pocket park with the waterfall tunnel that was at the back of the McGraw-Hill building, to get to 48th Street. There were tons of 60's Strats & a few Les Pauls sitting within easy reach for anybody to pick up and play. I remember seeing Rick James walk across 48th street on my way to see the Jazzmobile (jazzmen playing on a flatbed trailer at various locations, for free). Good times the mid to late 1970's.

[johnsoba]

I bought the f hole model of the lump from Arthur’s music in Indianapolis. My Strad-o-Lin had literally fallen apart in my hands while playing chords, which is all I knew how to do in 1971. BUT I was the mandolin player in my brother’s band with his friends who really could play. So, I went a bought the Gibson I could afford because Gibson’s were the best, right? and the salesperson played a tune on it, so I knew it made sound. Over the following 4 or 5 years I encountered this situation over and over again: I would start playing in a jam and people would look at me and the mando funny. Then someone would ask to give it a try. They would chop it as hard as they could and it still produced very little sound, thin and tinny.

Quick happy ending: Clyde Bowling sold it for me at a festival in Michigan and brought me $400, about what I could get today. My brother ran a music store and a guy had just sold him some mandolins that he was really impressed with. I gave him the $400 and walked away with a sweet Givens A5 which is still a great mando today! (Who would have been traveling across the country about 1978, selling Givens mandos out of the trunk of his car?)