"the gibson" tailpiece cover

[Mr. Loar]

Is the tailpiece cover on a Gibson etched or stamped? Can anyone provide a picture of one here?

[Bob DeVellis]

I think it depends on the era, with the later ones being stamped and the earlier ones engraved. Here's a pic of the one on my 1913 A3. I had originally ended this post by saying that it looks engraved, but seeing it magnified, I'm not sure. The curvature of the metal adjacent to the lines kind of looks stamped. Hopefully, others will know more.


.

[Red Henry]

Many postwar tailpieces were etched, in a fairly simple design, but the most often-seen prewar ones were stamped. The very early Gibson tailpieces (with a "pineapple" motif at the top) also looked stamped. But the Loar tailpieces may have been engraved. Experts?

Red

[Bob DeVellis]

Red, you just answered my question! Thanks.

[mandroid]

Etching , which means : whole piece is coated in an acid resistant material,
that material is carefully
scratched thru, and the piece is immersed in strong acid which eats away the exposed metal.

only a bit less laborious than hand engraving.

[the ones Bill James supplies are optionally engraved
though now we have CNC machines to move the graving tool around].

2_'22 Gibson A tailpieces, both are stamped in details. decorative lines just less deep than pictured one
flip them over you will see some distortion
the bottom of the stamping machine kind of like an anvil.

mass production , rather than one off, favors stamping,
though Dies of different patterns make different impressions.

and force that the die is hammered on is another
variable.

and of course dies wear so new one makes a different
mark than one after a few hundred stampings.

the one in the picture has 2 different dies,
for the details,
decoritive pattern , and second for logo.

may have been done after the sheet was stamp sheared to shape

cut sheet dropped in an allignment jig, then impressions struck.

before it went to the folder to bend the ends over.

[hotclub]

All Loar tailpieces were hand engraved, as well as many modern high end "The Gibson" tailpieces.

[mandroid]

Got closeups of those too ? for comparison.

hand engraving has distinctive marks from working with graving the tool