Ever seen a 6 string k-1 mandocello?

**Wesley** · Apr-12-2007, 8:55am

I've never hear of anything like this before but I'm hardly an expert. NFI - just curious of this is a one of a kind.

http://www.mckenzierivermusic.com/01215.html

**Darryl Wolfe** · Apr-12-2007, 9:17am

Very odd. Looks totally factory. I guess theoretically it could be tuned in mandocello steps

**Jim Garber** · Apr-12-2007, 11:16am

Possibly factory but that fretboard end looks like a mandocello -- I don't think that guitars of the period had that florida extension. Could just be a one-off custom

Jim

**allenhopkins** · Apr-12-2007, 12:00pm

Never seen a trapeze tailpiece with a pin bridge -- did Gibson use anything like that on its carved-top guitars?

**Darryl Wolfe** · Apr-12-2007, 12:24pm

Allen..yes. #There were two kinds. #One like this where the rods are bent and embedded in sandwiched plastic and another where the plastic is solid and the rods go thru to the top and have acorn nuts. #I have made two replacements for these parts and they are a terror to shape and drill correctly. The plastic was replaced later by a bar piece of metal that the rods reverse hooked into.

**markishandsome** · Apr-12-2007, 8:00pm

I always thought that tailpiece was the craziest idea anyone ever had. Just nuts. Yet somehow intriguing...

**danb** · Apr-13-2007, 5:47am

Does anyone have the serial/stamp number for that 6-string cello? Typically a sign of a custom-order original is an "A" at the end of the FON stamp

**Paul Hostetter** · Apr-18-2007, 11:14pm

I think you'll have to buy it to find out!

**squirrelabama** · Apr-20-2007, 12:43pm

I just received an email from the shop owner.... no "A" after the serial# or FON#. Still, gibson is not known for their consistency with anything....other than, well I'll keep my mouth shut right now......

**Rick Turner** · Apr-21-2007, 6:01pm

Lowell Levinger has/had a white faced one that had been a six string at one point and was converted/re-converted to eight strings. It's a very nice re-fin job, and who knows how many strings it's had at various times. Six and eight is a good guess, or was that eight, six, and eight?