What was the 1917 F4 nut made of?

[TonyF-4]

I have a 1917 Gibson F4 with a mother of pearl nut. The mandolin looks to be all original, but the guy who is going to refret it says that the MOP nut is not original. Can someone shed some light on this?

[sunburst]

It may or not be original. The original was probably pearl, but it could have been changed to a new pearl nut at any time. In other words, your fret guy might be saying that the particular nut is not original to your mandolin rather than saying that it did not have a pearl nut originally (because it probably did).

[Tobin]

A pearl nut may have been original (I thought they were bone nuts originally), but a mother-of-pearl nut wouldn't. Not that I'm aware of, anyway.

[sunburst]

"Mother-of-pearl" = "pearl", in common parlance. In other words, "pearl" and "mother-of-pearl" refer to the same material here.

[houseworker]

My 1920 F-4 has a bone nut, that is definitely original to the instrument.

[sunburst]

Interesting. My 1920 F4 had an original pearl nut.

[Ken Waltham]

Pearl on F4's, bone on F2's.

[Darryl Wolfe]

I'm going on a limb here and say that it depended on the time period. I believe the nuts were pearl during roughly the Loar era and were bone or such earlier. Meaning that pearl may be or is a Loar era feature of the style 4 and 5 instruments, like the truss rod and adj bridge.

I do know that Loar era F4's had pearl nuts

[Tobin]

Both my pre-Loar Gibsons ('17 H4 and '18 F4) have bone nuts. So even if MOP were offered before the Loar era, my guess is that it wasn't standard, even on the style 4 instruments.

[Darryl Wolfe]

Both my pre-Loar Gibsons ('17 H4 and '18 F4) have bone nuts. So even if MOP were offered before the Loar era, my guess is that it wasn't standard, even on the style 4 instruments.

All of this is fitting together with posts back to houseworker. It has the appearance that 1920ish on was pearl

[sunburst]

A former coworker had a teens F4 with a pearl nut. I can't remember what year is was... Handel tuners, excellent condition, appeared all original... I'm thinking 1915 - 1917.

[Ken Waltham]

A former coworker had a teens F4 with a pearl nut. I can't remember what year is was... Handel tuners, excellent condition, appeared all original... I'm thinking 1915 - 1917.

I agree. I have had so many F4's... they are pearl to my knowledge, F2's are bone....
Even old F4's are pearl.

[Bob A]

1921 F4 with pearl nut. I've only owned it since about 1970, so I can't attest to originality.

[Jack Roberts]

1915 F4, original:

My 'teens A1 and 'teens H1 are bone, however.

Congratulations to Tony for owning a beautiful instrument. Welcome to the cafe!

[TonyF-4]

Just an update for anyone who cares...I saw a reprint of Catalog "J" 1917 for Gibson instruments and on page 52 and 53 it advertises the f4 indicating it has a mother of pearl nut.