Gibson F7 (1937)

[Rich Michaud]

Does anyone know anything about the Gibson F7 (1937) Mando on ebay (Item number: 3724558316) ? Is is similar to Sam Bush's instrument?
Rich

[Scotti Adams]

...much more closer to John Duffys mando....of course Duffys had been suped up quite a bit...

[evanreilly]

Remember that the F-7 is what represented the mandolin in the formation of Blue Grass Music!!

[sunburst]

The BIG difference between that and Sam's is the length of the neck. That one has a short neck, sort of like the old Gibson A mandos, on an F body.
That puts the bridge in the "wrong" place on the top (not at the apex of the arch), and limits the range of notes that can be played more than on an F5.

I don't really know what kind of collector value we're talking about here, but in terms of intrinsic value, you can get a lot of mandolin for over $6000 and that one has already passed that mark.

In the "old days" people would get one of those cheap, have a long F5 style neck made by Randy Wood or somebody and have something like an F5 for less money. Those days are over with the current mandolin market. You could still do the conversion, but with the mandolins availably now days, why bother? It would cost too much would ruin any collector value it might have.

(I think it would be fun, tho http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif )

[Darryl Wolfe]

Check out the F7 at Elderly that has been modified. It should be a really great mando

f7 (http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/90U-3957.htm)

[Brian Aldridge]

I'll admit I have had a couple of these converted, and sunburst is dead on with his comments. I couldn't agree more. Also, to get them sounding really good, the tone bars need to be reduced in mass.

[Rich Michaud]

Thanks guys for the valuable info. Much obliged. Rich