Gibson A-2 (1920)

Gibson A-2 (1920)

83-2710 Gibson 1920 A-2 mandolin, 56300, brown, OH This mandolin could be something of a mystery (if we weren't The Forensic Freticians). It has a three-piece carved spruce top, which we have seen on some A-2 models. Although the serial number dates it at 1920 (pre-truss rod, and should have "The Gibson" inlaid on peghead) it has the adjustable rod and script "Gibson" straight-across logo, and a diamond inlaid in pearl thereunder. It seems to have had a pickguard on both the treble and the bass side (little mounting holes remain). There are four side dots on the bass side of the bound board, suggesting that it was made for righty playing but at some point somebody may have played it lefty. The top and back, as you find on the A-2, are both bound in ivoroid. The bridge is the Lloyd Loar period ebony adjustable with the "Pat. Jan.18-21" stamp on the base.

It is our joint prosthesis, having examined this very fine sounding, easy playing teardrop oval hole, that it was sent back to the factory for a new neck and fingerboard, circa l935, and, due to an unfortunate incident with a depressed, machete-wielding veteran of World War I, perhaps the two extreme sections of its top had to be replaced ("No no, I want to keep that rosette -- do anything you can, but I want that rosette preserved!").

This mandolin tells a story of calamity and reconstruction which you can cheerfully explain, at great length, to everybody who asks (yeah, right, like they'd ask), while still enjoying an extremely fine sounding old-time Gibson A-model in the exalted position of Style 2, third from the top in a family of six. **$ 1134

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