Guitar shaped like an F model mandolin? [Archive]

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Willie

Aug-30-2009, 8:07pm

I was watching a rerun of HeeHaw and Roy Clark was playing a guitar that was shaped like an F model mandolin, had the scroll and points etc....Does anyone know if there is name for that model guitar, I believe it was made by Gibson from what the peg head looked like....I`m not into playing guitar any more but was just wondering if that was something he had custom made or if it in fact was a model sold to the public....

Thanks.....Willie:mandosmiley:

Bill Snyder

Aug-30-2009, 9:05pm

I thought you might be talking about a Gibson Style-O guitar but they don't have the points.

JeffD

Aug-30-2009, 9:52pm

Cool picture

GVD

Aug-30-2009, 11:01pm

Are you sure it wasn't a mandocello?

mrmando

Aug-31-2009, 12:46am

Stuart Duncan has been spotted playing a guitar (definitely a guitar) with an F-style body, so they do exist. Never seen a production model; I assume Stuart's is a custom job.

Also, a few old Gibson cellos were vivisected into guitars.

stonefingers

Aug-31-2009, 12:57am

Oddly enough I just saw something like this on EBay a couple of days ago. Maybe it this (http://cgi.ebay.com/Solid-Wood-F5-Arch-Top-Guitar-w-MOP-Art-Inlay-3370_W0QQitemZ350246301022QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuita r?hash=item518c4e6d5e&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262) is what you are talking about?

Mike Bromley

Aug-31-2009, 1:23am

Tacky sunburst.....

jpiperson2002

Aug-31-2009, 5:50am

Here's a link to one from Bruceweiart in Taiwan, an ebay vendor, which I believe is the model pictured above. They offer lots of interesting looking instruments and inlay options. I recently ordered some inlaid tuner buttons from them and received an answer to my e-mail questions within few hours;

http://cgi.ebay.com/Solid-Wood-F5-Arch-Top-Guitar-w-MOP-Art-Inlay-3370_W0QQitemZ350246301022QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuita r?hash=item518c4e6d5e&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262

trevor

Aug-31-2009, 6:19am

If it looks to good to be true it just might be..

I had a customer bring in one of these in blue. It wasn't worth making playable...

MikeEdgerton

Aug-31-2009, 6:40am

There were some real weird guitars built for those country guys in the 50's and the 60's by Frank Gay (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001332). I'm sure some folks copied some of them puppies as well. I'm sure Roy Clark would have had the means to pretty much buy any guitar he wanted in those days.

Rob Gerety

Aug-31-2009, 7:57am

Oh Lord, watching that clip has me lusting after a mandochelo! What a cool instrument. I could see that in a contra dance band easy.

Big Joe

Aug-31-2009, 11:25am

There have been a couple F body guitars built by Gibson. I have worked on a couple. They are a bit odd but kind of cool. I would not say they sound stellar, but they are cool. We had an import from VietNam in the store for awhile that was a guitar with an F shape just like a mandolin. I thought it would be cooler if it were converted to a mandocello. That particular one had a smaller body than the Gibson's.

Rhinestone

Aug-31-2009, 2:40pm

If that's the same Stuart Duncan who used to live in California, then I've played that guitar. It was built by his dad who was an excellent luthier. He used to bring his son who was rather young at the time, into the club where I was playing most weekends out in Santa Paula,CA to sit in with us on fiddle. This was about the early 80s and I played pedal steel,guitar and guitorgan with a country rock band called Buddy Hollywood. Anyhow he brought this guitar in one night and it was made,he said,out of a Carvin neck to which he added wood to get the F5 headstock shape.He said he just enlarged some F5 plans to the correct size for a Les Paul style guitar. The guitar was a heavy solid-body and looked just like a big F5 down to the points,scroll,binding,sunburst finish,oversized hangmans noose strap,etc and had 2 exposed bobbin humbuckers - also Carvin. The fit and finish were tremendous and up to anything I've ever seen. The only thing out-of-scale was the longer neck because it was a guitar. The tiny control knobs and a couple mini-toggle switches were hidden in a cavity - a sort of trough in the edge of the upper bout. He let me play the guitar onstage a few times and it was amazingly responsive. Better than any Les Paul or similar style ax and was fantastic thru a Fender Twin for Southern blues-rock ala Duane Allman. I remember it didn't hang right - it was a bit neck heavy - nothing I couldn't deal with mind you, but man it really sang and had tremendous sustain. I immediately wanted to buy it but it wasn't for sale - it was built for his son Stuart he told me. I asked him to build me one exactly like it but he said he didn't ever want to go through that experience again and that it was a difficult build. I said how much would it take for you to change your mind and he said: "A lot of money...like at least $3500.00...." I was between wives and was playing in beer joints for $50 a night and that kind of pocket change just didn't exist for me then.

Hal Jeanes

Aug-31-2009, 2:51pm

I thought you might be talking about a Gibson Style-O guitar but they don't have the points.
I saw the Hew Haw rerun Willie was referring to and the guitar Roy was playing was the Gibson Style O like the one Bill showed in his post.

Rob Powell

Aug-31-2009, 2:52pm

Melodee Music in Leesburg had Weber make this one....actually, I think there were 2 ;)

Bernie Daniel

Aug-31-2009, 5:53pm

Interesting guitar in that picture -- do you think that your left thumb get blocked by the scroll?

barney 59

Aug-31-2009, 9:19pm

Episode 101 Good episode-Dolly Parton singing "My Blueridge Mountain Boy" Faron Young__well forget Faron Young - Grandpa Jones AND Stringbean with a Susan Ray And Buck Owens duet. Roy Clark is definately playing a Gibson Style 0. Hee Haw is worth watching just to see what dazzling guitar Roy is playing, he had quite a collection of beautiful guitars. I record all of them hoping they put on the Million Dollar Band with Jethro and Chet-- it never happens.

mrmando

Aug-31-2009, 9:26pm

If that's the same Stuart Duncan who used to live in California, then I've played that guitar.
Yes, it's him. Stuart moved out to Nashville & became a first-call session player & fiddler for the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Come to think of it, I believe I had seen one of those Bruce Wei guitars on Craigslist before.

Rob Powell

Sep-01-2009, 1:45am

Interesting guitar in that picture -- do you think that your left thumb get blocked by the scroll?

I've never played it for fear of what may happen to my bank account:grin:

That said, it looks like the scroll is past the 12th fret so it wouldn't affect anything I play ;-)

Martin Jonas

Sep-01-2009, 5:23am

There's more discussion and photos of Stuart Duncan's guitar here (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47899) and here (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41105).

Martin

Rhinestone

Sep-01-2009, 7:25am

Yup that's it. When I played it it didn't have the hipshot gadget on there. It's not fully hollow - but is chambered with a neck-thru type construction like Jon Mann's current instruments. Did I mention it's heavy.

EdHanrahan

Sep-01-2009, 8:07am

Here's a shot of Maura Kennedy (The Kennedys, The Strangelings) holding very nice arched, F-style, f-hole guitar:
http://www.reverbnation.com/thestrangelings

I've seen her perform in person with it, beautiful & extensively-inlaid. Two of them appear on The Strangelings "Season of the Witch" CD case, but I couldn't find a web photo.

In any case, SOMEONE has recently made some really nice F-style guitars!

Jim Broyles

Sep-01-2009, 10:27am

Rob Gerety

Sep-01-2009, 10:45am

Interesting guitar in that picture -- do you think that your left thumb get blocked by the scroll?

Probably. Just think of it as a 12 fret with a cut away.

EdHanrahan

Sep-01-2009, 11:37am

That's an Antoniotsai or a Bruce Wei instrument. Whadiya know? Instant credibility.

YEOUCH!! Can't believe the reviews are so consistently terrible, both Harmony Central and some disgruntled independent owners. Seems like many just crack apart in a few months. At least it sounded decent and looked really neat! Maybe Maura K's held together just long enough to take those cover photos.

Jim, thanks for the heads-up!

barney 59

Sep-01-2009, 11:18pm

YEOUCH!! Can't believe the reviews are so consistently terrible, both Harmony Central and some disgruntled independent owners. Seems like many just crack apart in a few months. At least it sounded decent and looked really neat! Maybe Maura K's held together just long enough to take those cover photos.

Jim, thanks for the heads-up!

I bought a mandolin because I just wanted to see the the inlay. It was a ebay item that slipped through a hole at $60 and $60 to ship. They tend to want about $300 + shipping when they list them as a buy- it- now. I received it in just a few days. It played pretty well in the lower positions but not so good up high. It wasn't intonation so much as it was just muddy. The tone was very nice otherwise (rosewood back and sides). The inlay was pretty dazzling and over the top. I played it for a few days, backed some of the tension off the strings and it went to live with the other stuff that never gets played. I took it out not long ago and the top is beginning to buckle. I think there is likely a seasoning problem with the wood in these instruments.

Colbee

Oct-01-2009, 7:22pm

Mmmm....
I've got an Antoniotsai F5. Well built and finished, needed a fret level but apart from that, cost around $AUD350 including freight (with hardshell case). Also have bought several basses and a solid body mandolin. All no probs. I think many of the reviews for these makers are very old, and they've improved a lot over the last couple of years.

ColB