Vintage Gibson Headstock Overlay

[HoGo]

I always study pics of interesting old mandolins or guitars in detail and one of the pictures in recent ad on ebay (posted on MC main page and discussed here: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...bson-headstock)
shows one overlooked detail. The broken survase shows clearly the three layers of overlay... top is thin approx 0.04" ebonized veneer (the inlay was inlaid into this veneer before the other layers were added), then there is a bit thicker veneer with grain across and underneath one more thin veneer with the grain along headstock.

[sunburst]

There were some years, including mid to late thirties, when Gibson used what appeared to be void-free hardwood plywood for overlays. The "show" surface was painted black, right over the inlays, and then the color was scraped off of the inlays before the clear finish was applied. Other years (not sure when off the top of my head) the show veneer was an ebonized hardwood, and sometimes it was painted black too. I'm not sure I've seen the plywood overlays on anything other than bound fingerboards. Did they bind the peghead to cover the edge of the plywood or did they laminate the overlay to make it thick enough for peghead binding? Chicken or egg?
Early inlays were often (usually? always?) set into holes cut completely through the overlay or fingerboard. The pearl was backed with something, spruce in the examples I've seen, to bring it up level with the fingerboard surface.

[Jim Hilburn]

Why no Handel's?

[Jim Garber]

Why no Handel's?

Could it be late teens?

[Jim Hilburn]

I don't keep up with all the minutia but that would be my guess too.

[Darryl Wolfe]

I will add what I know along with a few assumptions.

The technique Adrian describes is clearly visible inside the truss rod pocket of my Loar F5. And the black paint or lamp black solution that John speak to is clearly visible also.

The upper layer in which the inlay itself is situated has been assumed to be an ebonized pearwood. All I can say is that the layer is black all the way through and chips a bit like ebony.

I accidentally caused a small chip at a string post grommet long ago. I simply glued it back on and the bushing covers most of it. It was brownish black all the way through the layer.

Now...I have some original 1923 and 1924 Gibson blue prints of the "peghead veneer" That is the title of the drawings. It depicts a rectangular piece of veneer and gives the location dimensions for the inlay. It gives vertical and horizontal dimension, the angle of the script and such. So, with that info, we can fairly accurately assume that this is what was made in bulk prior to any shaping. It also depicts two reference spots. Essentially, two nail holes. I believe they added the other layers after the inlay process, and only for bound pegheads of course.

Now lets move to the brass peghead patterns that I have shown before. These plates are shaped to the peghead outline of just the overlay, not the binding that goes outside. It also has the two nail holes, string post drill centers, truss rod screw locations and binding dimensions noted on it. One can pretty much assume that they used this to shape the entire overlay prior to binding.

On unbound mandolins, believe they affixed the rectangular thin overlay and then shaped the entire peghead.

There are a handful of late 24 and early 25 mandolins (both bound and unbound) where it appears they tried not painting the overlay for a while. These have and unusually dark brown mottled look to them

If you look closely here:

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/gibson/serial/80782

You can see it

[Darryl Wolfe]

One more piece of minutia....On the earliest Loars that have only a single black line on the bottom of the overlay...I believe that line is the third piece of lamination.. That means that they bound the top and middle layer, then added the bottom black layer.

[Spruce]

That means that they bound the top and middle layer, then added the bottom black layer.

That would then be visable on the edge of the peghead?

[HoGo]

That would then be visable on the edge of the peghead?

Yes, those few Loars with double bound headstocks and fingerboard have that extra black layer under overlay or fretboard visible from sides. I think I described this already in 3rd edition of my drawings.
I've got CT scan where this is recognisable (even though not very clearly due to low resolution).
BTW on other of the pics from the ad the pin above Gibson is quite visible. There were several variations of position of the pins, on teens F-4' s the upper pin is above the logo but on Loars is is usually between under the word "The".