A style / F style - Which came first ??.

[Timbofood]

One day, in a cave deep under Nashville, archeologists will find the fossil evidence of B, C, D, and E style mandolins. Until then, we must believe in the theory of Loarvolution whereby sometime around the Loar era, bored luthiers began comically tinkering on instrument shapes resulting in Gibprotrusion and that eventually somehow granted some survival advantage over their rounded predecessors and which, over the millennia, eventually resulted in the Florentine horn. But until then we must assume styles B-E to be missing links. Oh, and there are probably some monkeys in there somewhere.

Sorry, the cavern is here in Kalamazoo. I’m sad to say unfortunately, the Mega Corp that has taken over the Parson street location is far more interested in making it a trendy coffee shop and brewpub with windows on what’s being built at “Heritage” now. They were the geniuses that fired a dozen employees that were doing some of the important handwork just months before they might have been able to retire!

[Graham McDonald]

The first Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co catalogue from 1903 shows both Style A and Style F 'Artist' model mandolins, with no explanation of why or how those letters were arrived at. The catalogue also lists Style H mandolas, Style K mandocellos and both Style L and O guitars, but none were illustrated, which might suggest they had not actually built any in the first few months of the company's existence. The whole 'Florentine' appellation is meaningless, especially when the later decorated Florentine banjos used images of Venice.

I don't think Orville Gibson used any letters (A or F) to distinguish his mandolins, though I have a recollection of an 'Artist' model in an early (pre-Gibson Co) ad from somewhere, maybe a Kalamazoo newspaper. Hopefully Joyce Brumbaugh's forthcoming bio of Orville will answer some of the mysteries around the man.

Cheers

[David Lewis]

I was m

I do not know how accurate this is, but I keep hearing from luthiers and others that the F stands for Florentine, the shape and embellishments of and on the body. Wikipedia says: "At the very end of the 19th century, a new style, with a carved top and back construction inspired by violin family instruments began to supplant the European-style bowl-back instruments in the United States. This new style is credited to mandolins designed and built by Orville Gibson, a Kalamazoo, Michigan luthier who founded the "Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited" in 1902. Gibson mandolins evolved into two basic styles: the Florentine or F-style, which has a decorative scroll near the neck, two points on the lower body and usually a scroll carved into the headstock; and the A-style, which is pear shaped, has no points and usually has a simpler headstock." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandolin
(but of course Wiki is not always accurate)

I once stated that in a comment here and was told that that wasn’t the case. (Id also got that from here).

[Charles E.]

From another thread today........

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...y-Gibson-Today

1898 I would think Orville probably built A styles first.

[David Lewis]

Just back to nomenclature quickly - Boss guitar effects often start the lineup with 2 - Boss BD2. Boss FT 2 etc. the argument is sort of that people won’t buy the first iteration - they want the latest one. (Of course the CH1. DS1. OD1 and a couple of others probably belie that.

[Ray(T)]

From Ray - " ..how do you explain the logic in this sequence.." I don't !. However, the first 2 were originally the AVRO 748 & the military version,the AVRO 780. I had 45 years of good,solid employment out of A.V. Roe Co. etc. They could call their aircraft anything they wanted as far as i was concerned - work is work !. The aircraft designations are as bizzare as the Gibson instrument ones - but why !,
Ivan

Hi Ivan, just wanted to point out that, wherever you look, there are inconsistencies in manufacturers numbering/naming systems. It’s not just confined to Gibson.

Who knows, there may have been B, C, D and E model mandolins which were so bad they were never released!