Gibson lump scroll

[trevor]

Looking for more info and photos of the lump scroll/mickey mouse Gibson. Looks like there was an A5 and A12 f hole but Charles Johnson recently had an A5 lump oval hole...

[bradeinhorn]

they aren't highly regarded here. search the archives. you will find quite a bit.

[trevor]

Brad,
Thanks, I am aware of their poor reputation, and most folks (including mine) view that they are cosmetically challenged, just trying to find some more info for a customer. I will do a search.

[mandroid]

someone recently had an F4 FS in MC's classifieds, got my nagging question answered,
the same block of wood that is the neck anchor, is also the solid mass in the lump,
rather than hollow.

[MikeEdgerton]

Check out this thread.

[PaulD]

I've only played one "lump scroll" mando and I think it was hands down the most dead mando I've ever played.

pd

[trevor]

Dan B just suggested to me that the lump should be called an anti theft device.. great idea

[pickinNgrinnin]

[QUOTE]Dan B just suggested to me that the lump should be called an anti theft device

HA! That's a good one!

[Joe F]

There's a marketing idea: An anti-theft device in the form of a scroll "sock" that slips over your scroll, making it look like a lump scroll.

[danb]

I first heard that when Gerald Trimble fitted a 10-string cittern with microtonal frets. Someone started calling them the "Anti-theft devices" at the time.

Creativity is often a function of the obscurity of your source material

[JEStanek]

The Mando-Club!
Jamie

[fredfrank]

I think Greg Boyd had one recently and actually sold it! It may still be pictured on his site, gregboyd.com

Right here

[sunburst]

That one from Greg Boyd's doesn't look as bad as some things I've seen come from the depths of the worst Gibson years, other than the "dumb" looking lump/scroll.
These days, with so many good mandolins available, it doesn't make much sense to do it, but I've worked on one of those 12s that had been taken apart, re-graduated, the scroll carving completed, and re-finished into a pretty decent mandolin, I believe by C.E.Ward.
The father of the guy who owns it has an F12 with so much wood in it that...well, the converted A12 sounds much better.

[fatt-dad]

Could you get somebody to make you a custom-order "lumpy" that actually sounded good, or would that be copyright infringment ala the flowerpot (I mean it's not like you're replicating the sound, eh)?

f-d

[sunburst]

I'm not sure.
It could be done of coarse. The lump wouldn't necessarily do anything to hurt the sound, so it would be possible to build a good sounding "lumpy", it's the possibility of getting anyone to build one that I'm not sure about. Here's a quote from my web site concerning custom work:

"I welcome and enjoy doing custom work, incorporating your ideas into your new instrument. As for what is available, anything goes, with possible exceptions. If I think something is structurally unsound, aesthetically reprehensible, or in extremely poor taste, I won't build it, inlay it, or put my name on it."

[MandoBen]

You could always convert an F5 with some bondo and touch up paint if you really wanted one like that.

[Dean Henderson]

<span style='font-family:comic sans ms'><span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:navy'>Greg Boyd listed this as a 60's era mandolin. #I bought a new Gibson RB-250 banjo in 1976, and the lump-scroll-A-style mandolins were still in the catalog at that time. #Does anyone know how long Gibson made these?</span></span></span>

[Elliot Luber]

I'd have that lump removed. Works for the Les Paul guitar, but it's odd on a Mando.