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Thread: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

  1. #26
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Is that "resonator" inside the mandolin? Does it look like this?
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    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Good idea Mike, the elusive IZRIV from the earlier post
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  3. #28
    Registered User LongBlackVeil's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeEdgerton View Post
    Is that "resonator" inside the mandolin? Does it look like this?
    He said it keeps the back off of your body, so I'm guessing it's more like the blue comets with their double backs. I wonder if it's really a gibson though, gotta see pictures here
    "When you learn an old time fiddle tune, you make a friend for life"

  4. #29

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    well finally postd pictures youse guys and no one cvomments, I work and slave my fingers to the bone sigh

  5. #30
    Mike Parks woodwizard's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Not able to see pics dude invalid link me thinks
    I Pick, Therefore I Grin! ... "Good Music Any OLD-TIME"

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  7. #31

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	129507ok, my pictures didn't work, i'll try again.

    as I said the recent luthier who worked on it said the back is a Gibson twenties top blank--he's seen them before. the previous lutheir said the same thing but he hadn't seem them except in pictures. there is a dendrichronology lab near here, one of three in the world, building a data base for dating wood --world wide, I suppose I should take it there to see if they can date the back wood. a friend got a date for the cutting of his fiddle wood from them. they can often date the exact year for instrument spruce. instrument spruce is one wood they have a huge world wide data base on. they can tell the year the spruce was cut. not necessarily the year it was made into an instrument--usually twenty to forty years before the instrument was made--before the modern kilns.

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  9. #32

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    ps, the top; had dropped over the year--on the side with the crack. it was stable for a decade then, after I had the brace reglued, but the crack re opened roughly a year ago. had a new brace put in and it seems stable now.

    the tuners are pretty inaccurate--it takes longer to tune than most instruments, but they hold. the new brace affected the sweetness--made it harsher, but the loudness stayed. now the sweetness is coming back. I life in hope it will be it's old self soon.

    I played he heck out of this for twenty years.

  10. #33
    Registered User jmp's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Looks some kind of "tone guard" is mounted on the back. I've never heard of them coming out of the factory with a contraption like that on the back.

    Looks like a legit factory mod as the OP has indicated.

    Very interesting, learn something new every day.
    Last edited by jmp; Jan-25-2015 at 1:27pm.

  11. #34
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    I have not seen anything like that. Wow.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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  12. #35
    two t's and one hyphen fatt-dad's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    I sort of want that! How cool!!

    f-d
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  13. #36

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    I have a banjolele with the same type of resonator.

  14. #37
    My Florida is scooped pheffernan's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Quote Originally Posted by ollaimh View Post
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    That peghead script is different than the one on my 1924 Gibson A snakehead.

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    1924 Gibson A Snakehead
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  15. #38
    two t's and one hyphen fatt-dad's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    that script began somewhere in 1925.

    f-d
    ¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

    '20 A3, '30 L-1, '97 914, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5, '14 OM28A

  16. #39

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    yeah they used the same back on a few banjo/mandolins, I was told . I think this is one of the 19 in the records that gruhn had read. gibosn wasn;t very carefull with records back then.. he also said there was a note of no sales so they did not make more. it nwas probably an experiment that no one liked the look of. mandolin players were conservative then, many are now. but it really increases the volume. it's too bad it has had a hard life, but so have I. I always say it is old and pretty beaten up, but it still sounds great--kinda like me.

    I really should get the dendrochronology lab to establish the date of the wood, if the top and back are from clolse dates that should be strong evidence that it is factory..

    gruhn told me he was quite surprised to find, the catalog with the offering of resonator back mandolins, he hadn't noticed it. too bad no picture--that might solve it.

    however the main thing is it is a great player.

  17. #40

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    and yeah the logo is different from the other one here. again gruhn said the plain A(like mine) was screen printed on . the serial number was dec 1924, according to gruhn, but I have to get a magnifying glass. I can't read it anymore. my recent repair man could with a magnifying glass and a strong light. it doesn't help that my eyesight is getting a lot worse. I need glasses for even this page now and can't read fine print at all.

    because this one is soo loud I have thought of looking for a better condition snakehead from time to time and putting a back on it!!

  18. #41
    Mike Parks woodwizard's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    That is the strangest thing I've ever seen
    I Pick, Therefore I Grin! ... "Good Music Any OLD-TIME"

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  19. #42

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    yes it's odd and strange but it works like a damn. I have thought of getting a luthier to attach one to another of my mandolins, just to see if it works in all designs. it holds the back away from your body--which a lot of us do naturally to reduce dampening of the sound, so that may be most of it. but it may reflect some sound as well, I can say it is the loudest acoustic mandolin I have ever heard, but still has a good woody tone.


    it carries amazingly well as well. I used to busk subways in Toronto and people would tell me they could hear me at the opposite entrance, a mile or a mile and a half away. they would hear it all the way walking and really want to see what that is. a real money maker. and as I said a must for small gigs, where the singer and guitarist have the mikes.

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  21. #43

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    I have a question. I have a 24 or 25 snakehead A , all black. The body is in excellent shape. No cracks or repairs that I can see. The pick guard is missing and there is serious pick rash above the strings. Down to bare wood. Is there any way this can be touched up without destroying the value of the instrument? Or am I better off leaving it alone?

  22. #44
    Registered User LongBlackVeil's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Tindel View Post
    I have a question. I have a 24 or 25 snakehead A , all black. The body is in excellent shape. No cracks or repairs that I can see. The pick guard is missing and there is serious pick rash above the strings. Down to bare wood. Is there any way this can be touched up without destroying the value of the instrument? Or am I better off leaving it alone?
    Leave it alone!

    A worn mandolin is a beautiful thing and any finish touch up will devalue it
    "When you learn an old time fiddle tune, you make a friend for life"

  23. #45

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    That's what I thought. Thanks.

  24. #46

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Quote Originally Posted by LongBlackVeil View Post
    Leave it alone!

    A worn mandolin is a beautiful thing and any finish touch up will devalue it
    To a certain extent it is already devalued. Is there anything in the way you play that caused that or contributes to it? I say that because I do that to mandolins myself. I hit the board with my loose fingers(nails), not the pick, and not all that often but over years it must be thousands of times. I wear through the finish and eventually into the wood. I guess at some point I'll end up with something that Willie Nelson would play and then it'll really be devalued! If the rash is continuing I wouldn't think that a light clear finish to be a bad thing at all and would protect the top and slow down the damage. I have in fact done that to my old "A". I don't think old A models have THAT much value anyway,there's 10's of thousands of them-- only a small percentage are "collectible"! I wouldn't do that to a Loar! I played maybe 10 different old Gibson A models today and not one of them had damage like that to the top! As a woodworker and not an antique collector I have to say that wood very much likes to have a finish on it! Also if done carefully it'd take a blacklight inspection to know that it was done.
    Last edited by barney 59; Feb-07-2015 at 10:28pm.

  25. #47
    Registered User LongBlackVeil's Avatar
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    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Maybe I'm biased. I love the look of worn instruments, it's beauty imo. I've had an old worn Gibson guitar with plenty of barewood showing for over ten years now. The wood will be fine as long as I don't leave it outside or something. What about all the speed necks and violin necks? All unfinished, nothing bad is happening to them of course they're protected a bit by the oil of your hands but there's plenty of these old Gibson mandolins that have not been touched up when this happens, they're also fine for the most part.

    I'm not really saying you shouldn't do it, I wouldn't though. There's really no reason to. I agree, the devaluing aspect is not a big deal, so if it really bothers you that much go ahead and do it but you certainly don't have to

    Personally I cry a little on the inside when someone does this to an old instrument. It took that mandolin close to 100 years to acquire that wear and your going to take that away? But it's not mine so not my choice
    "When you learn an old time fiddle tune, you make a friend for life"

  26. #48

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    yeah, my mando is old beat up but sounds great--kinda like me!!!

  27. #49

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Actually the oil from your hands on the neck is kind of a lot of oil and continuously replenishing and who's to say how long it took to wear the finish off the top. Jody Stecher managed to wear a hole all the way through that Miller of his in only a few years.He had Stan Miller devise a very interesting looking patch. In my case the problem is on going and only going to get worse and that damage did not exist when I got it--I did it! A very thin coat of clear finish doesn't really look like anything happened at all. I'm not trying to hide the damage--no pigments are involved- I just want to slow it down. I just gave it a bit of a harder surface and maybe a little bit of absorption into the softer grain of the spruce. I used a very flat lacquer and since it drys almost immediately it doesn't absorb very deeply ---those white lines between the dark lines on those wide grained Gibson mandolin tops tend to lose material faster than the dark parts. Like I said before, it looked after I did it pretty much exactly as it did before I did it. Short of a blacklight test you would never know. If Tom Tindel is no way responsible for what has happened to the top of his-- Yah, why do it?

  28. #50

    Default Re: gibson snakehead mandolins from the twenties

    Actually I'm a guitar picker, not a mandolin picker. I got this from a friend about ten years ago. He wasn't playing it (he has an F5) and needed some money so I helped him out. Just recently got it out and did some research. The serial number is 77936 which I think makes it a late 1924 or early 1925. The tuners were missing so I bought a set of Golden Age tuners from Stew-Mac that fits the hole spacing. I've strung it and tuned it and it sounds great. When I decide what it's worth I'll probably sell it. Who ever ends up with it can decide if they want to fix it or not. I agree with you. I think it gives it character.

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