You gotta just love them old Gibson's
You gotta just love them old Gibson's
Michael Lettieri
Tailpiece covers.. first shot shows a very early and a "pretty early" style "pineapple" cover pair. Note that the stamping is in a different place and angle..
Here is the same one from the right on the previous photo (~1904) alongside one from a snakehead (1923).
The stamping on these two are almost eerie in how similar to each other they are
Two different shades of green from two 20s cases..
A stack of cases (some empty!)
'03 and '17 scrolls..
Another view..
Only one scroll here, but I like the photo!
Slight pedant point - that's a '16 scroll on the F2
From a friend. See if you can guess the maker, or on the obvious Gibsons.. the years..
Gibson F9------Weber Sage #1------Gibson A9
Here's a nice Martin mandolin collection:
Back row
20's Ditson A, 17 Bitting Special (maple), 21 Style B, 18 Style A, 48 Style A shade top, 20's Ditson BK (koa), 28 Style AK (koa)
Middle row
15 Style A, 25 Style C, 24 Style E, 14 Style D, 20 Style C, 22 Style B (all Brazilian RW)
Front row
26 Style AA mandola, 36 Style BB mandola (BRW)
Here's a second shot of just the 5 different grades, A, B, C, D, and E. All are Brazilian rosewood. The A was once owned by Norman Blake.
My favorite mandolin picture I have taken.
Charles:
Great photos! Are those all yours or ones you have accumulated or just a congregation of them from different owners? I hope you don't mind my asking.
Jim
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
(I'm posting this one for Ken Waltham)
Left to right.
1923 A, 1924 TL, 1923 F5, 1924 F4, 1927 F5,1928 K1, 1929 F5
Ken, whats that tenor lute sound like? I love the way those look with the banjo headstock. My tenor guitar has been getting a lot of play time lately leading me to look towards a longer than mando, scale length instrument as my next MIAS purchase...the I standing for instrument and we're all familar with the AS aren't we !!!
Look up (to see whats comin down)
The TL sounds pretty thin to me. Too long of a scale length, with tenor banjo strings.. I don't really see any use for it. I am researching having it converted to a mandola. Notice how the relief around the rim looks so much like that snakehead. I think it would make a fantastic mandola, and would probably sound like a Loar signed H5. The fingerboard is even raised off the top like a style 5! And.. it has the Master Model label.
I just missed buying one with 8 strings... I'd loved to have tried that.
Ken, how do you have it strung/tuned? I have done a lot with Irish tenor banjos and tenor guitars- I'd be quite curious to hear how it works out with weightier Irish TB strings, such as
G .052 PB Wound
D .035 PB Wound
A .022 PB Wound
E .012 Plain Steel
That's how I set up my 19-fret Weymann tenor banjo.. My National resonator has
G .047 PB wound
D .035 PB wound
A .023 PB wound
E .013 plain
(The G doesn't need to be as heavy, the E needs a little more to it)
In my opinion most 19-fret tenor banjos sound wrong at CGDA tone-wise, but they pick up a lovely personality with GDAE.
Charles..in your last picture..is the Style E a mandola?...it appears larger.
Great pics by the way...I notice the first one on your site yesterday
Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
www.f5journal.com
Ken,
that was kinda my guess too. #Just not enough downward pressure to drive to top to its full poential. I don't know what that would do to the value but I bet it would sound a lot better! #I ended up getting another tenor guitar and am inpatiently waiting its arrival. #Im gonna compare it to my 20's Regal custom-built with curly mahogany back and sides and if the tone is way similar sell the least fav of the two after a month or so. Thanks for the info!
Dan,
Im gonna give those guages a try on my Weymann tenor. I down tuned it to GDAE with the strings on it (GHS tenors I believe) and it wasn't very toneful to my ear. One question tho...is the tension about the same? I'd like to try those guages out on my tenor guitar with the GDAE tuning to recoup some more bottom end outta the thing. Thanks and BTW I finally got around to a more than curtsy look at the Mandolin Archive and wow, what a great site, idea and all! Thanks for the work and efforts of ALL involved, thats just a great treasure to be able to view in such an organized fashion the evolving of the mandolin to its current state!
Jeff
Jeff
Look up (to see whats comin down)
Where's a good spot to order some of those strings? I can do that and just try it before doing anything.
However, I do feel that with a body identical to the one and only mando/viola, this thing is dying to be something more than a TL that nobody knows what to do with... even when they were new.
I do appreciate the advice, however, and the more we talk about this the better. I've had it quite some time without doing anything with it, because of the rareness of the item.
Ken- you should be able to pick those up single gauges from a guitar shop, or mail order from Elderly or numerous others.. I've bought from elderly and several other online shops over the years.
As you say, worth a shot!
Mandolooter- mine is a fairly heavy set of gauges. Search google for the "string tension calculator" if you want to noodle with the variables or notes you produce.. I used that to get my various 10-string zooks working properly
The gauges a friend recommended for a short-scale (17 fret) tenor banjo in ocatve mando tuning:
.011 .016 .028 .038
Jim
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
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