Ageing white binding

[carleshicks]

I have a new Gibson Fern and the mandolin is beautiful,but the binding is so white it blinds you. Is there any way to age it because I am sure in my life time it will always be white.

[Jim Rowland]

You are probably correct in your assumption that the plastic will not age anytime soon,or in the case of some plastics, ever. There may be some mellowing of color due to aging of the lacquer coating your Gibson probably has.

It is possible to simulate yellowing or aging on white plastic binding by simply tinting it. This would probably entail preparatory scraping of the plastic,followed by the application of a weak alcohol based tint. It would then have to be resealed with clear lacquer. I have done this on guitars during the building stage,but never in retro. For your new Gibson,my best advice is to forget it. It would require the attention of an expert and the results could suffer from bangs and skins in the future.

[carleshicks]

That is probably good advise.

[Charlie Derrington]

Carles.......

I actually went through some anguish when I spec'd the F-5 Fern. The originals had pure white binding, but aged binding does look good.

I opted for originality and the largest consensus seems to agree it was the right choice. Since the mando is new to you, I'd try to just not worry about it, and before you know it, you'll probably forget it was ever an issue.

Thanks for choosing Gibson.

Charlie

[carleshicks]

I appreciate the response I am very happy with the new Fern and the white binding is growing on me, Maverick just directed me to a web sight that showed a 1927 Fern and it told that they were built with white binding instead of ivriod. So I supose I would rather have a historicaly acurate reproduction.