Teens Gibson Finish?

[Tavy]

I know this has been asked before... but am I correct that all teens Gibsons had their finish padded on and was either shellac or some other varnish, and not lacquer?

My reason for asking is that I'm repairing a 1915 order instrument which has a crazy amount of checking on the surface of the top:



This is something I would normally associate with later lacquer finishes. Back and sides appear quite different - much more like the usual teens varnish (whatever recipe it was). So.. I'm thinking later overspray?

I have touch-up around a major crack that I need to blend into the existing finish, so either I need to fake checking on the new finish(!), or else carefully remove the overspray and get back to the underlying varnish (if that's what I have).

[HoGo]

This is something I would normally associate with later lacquer finishes. Back and sides appear quite different - much more like the usual teens varnish (whatever recipe it was). So.. I'm thinking later overspray?

I have touch-up around a major crack that I need to blend into the existing finish, so either I need to fake checking on the new finish(!), or else carefully remove the overspray and get back to the underlying varnish (if that's what I have).

Looks like overspray but the underlaying finish will be cracked as well, not only the outer layers... if you can find out what is the overspray it would help a lot. If it is just shellac or alcohol based finish you can scuff-sand the surface to get rid of part of the overspray and blend the rest with FP and possibly cover most of the finish cracks. This would work even if the overspray is nitro or oil varnish but cracks will probaly show again after some time.
Replicating cracks is possible using tip of knifeand then lightly polishing over to soften the edges.
Full removal of the overspray would be hardest - I'm just doing it on F4 - finish with bubbles and cracks I slowly sanded down till I started seeing witness lines and removed most of the surface blemishes and I'm filling the rest with FP.

[Frank Ford]

I'd say you have an original finish there - NOT "overspray." That's the look of an early Gibson finish.

[Tavy]

I'd say you have an original finish there - NOT "overspray." That's the look of an early Gibson finish.

Thanks Frank, any ideas why the top would be so different to the back and sides?

[Frank Ford]

Without having it in hand, I presume the finish is thicker on top and/or it had different exposure - e.g., hanging on the wall. I've long held that the finish is more likely to be thicker on the colored tops, partly to accommodate the process (adding layers for color, adding finish to cover little problems in staining, or whatever) and because in those days a thicker finish was generally associated with higher quality. For example, Martin used a thicker finish on the pearl trimmed guitars because they could afford to and because it would show off the pearl better.

Also, Gibson was very aggressive in getting their teacher/dealers to get instruments back to the factory for a bit of extra revenue by repair, setup, refinishing, refretting, etc.

I have such a mandolin - it's a 1911 black top F-2, and it appears to be all original, but I do know for certain that it was sent back to Kalamazoo (from Sandusky, OH, by the way) for refretting, refinishing, and a new case in 1923.