tobacco & cremona

[mcmando]

Sorry for such an elementary question, but can anyone descibe the differences in these two common finish colors?

Thanks!

[sunburst]

The short answere is....I doubt it.

I think they were originally catalog descriptions of the shaded finish on some of Gibsons instruments. Cremona, of coarse, is the town in Italy that Stradivari and other prominent violin makers of the time came from. The implication, it seems to me, is that the finish looks like the characteristically worn finish on an antique violin.

Tobacco is brown. (unless it's still green) I assume that a tobacco sunburst is so named to indicate that it shades to brown and to differentiate it from the red bursts that Gibson sometimes used. Some of these were called cherry sunbursts.

I think that in view of the many builders and manufacturers that use sunburst finishes, and the variations thereof, it would be hard to say if there is a difference. After all, you can call a lot of things a sunburst. Even onesself if you happen to be looking for a name that relates to musical instruments, and the name isn't already taken.

[Rroyd]

The difference in the tobacco and Cremona finish in the Loar-era mandolins was the tobaccoburst was considerably lighter in color, with the wood grain showing through over the entire instrument. #The Cremona sunburst was far darker, appearing to become almost black from a distance. #Check some of the F5 Journal's postings of Loar photos for examples of what I tried to verbally describe; a picture is worth a thousand words.