I wasn't really looking for a new mandolin but I was cruising around the internet, and this one jumped out at me, so I bought it. It's a 1995 Gibson A-5G. The price seems to have gone up on these lately, but this one was reasonably priced, so I bought it from the Olde Town Pickin' Parlor, and they had to me in no time and did a great packing job.
When I opened the case I was surprised to see the condition which is about as mint as it could be. And, I like that is has the same nut width, and flat fingerboard as my Gibson F-5G which is my favorite mandolin, so it will make it easy switching between mandos. It intonates right on the money, and it setup perfectly with the new strings that I bought for it, a set of Mapes 11-40 Phosphor Bronze. I also put a Hill County armrest on it (I have them on all my other mandolins). I also ordered an NOS Gibson tailpiece cover as someone misplaced the original on this one, it should be here next week.
I also own a Flatiron Performer A model mandolin from 1994, so I thought it would be fun to compare the two mandolins coming out of the Bozeman shop just a year apart. One thing I noticed is that the tone bar bracing is a bit different. The top brace, under the bass side, is more angled on the Gibson, where the Flatiron braces are more parallel. Also the Gibson has an elevated extended fingerboard.
They do sound different. I like the way that the Gibson sounds, as it is pretty even across the board, and the Gibson seems to have more low-end than the Flatiron, but there's something about the resonance and the midrange quality of the Flatiron that I like. And I think the Flatiron is a bit easier to play, although that could be chocked up to me playing the Flatiron quite a bit over the last few weeks. I plan to play them both quite a bit, and see which one sounds the best with the Phosphor Bronze Strings, and the one that loses will get some Thomastik Flatwounds. No use in having two As with the same strings I would prefer the variety of tones the Flatwounds will bring.
So here it is...
Here's it is with the Flatiron (this photo is very accurate to the colors)...
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