Gibson mandola peghead angle

[sprucetop1]

Just completed the neck blank for a Gibson H1/H2 mandola copy. I don't have access to an original instrument, so have angled the peghead back at 17 degrees, which is the angle I have measured on a teens A model mandolin. Is this the correct angle for an original teens Gibson mandola? It looks to be angled back a bit much.....this could be an optical illusion generated by the larger peghead. I would be v. grateful for advice and/or an angle measurement from an original instrument.....thanks.....John

[Mike Black]

The angle of my 1920 H2 is about 13 degrees.

[sprucetop1]

Mike....thanks v. much for the peghead angle measurement.........John

[sunburst]

I suspect that angle varied quite a bit depending on the neck blank, the worker doing the milling, and so forth.
When I built my first instrument (way back in the last century), the plans called for a 15 degree angle for the peghead. I agonized over measuring the angle and devising a jig to cut an exact 15 degree angle... I asked a mathematician for advice...spent days on it. When I went to work "at the factory" one of the first things I was really curious about was how they measured and cut the peghead angle. Turns out, they had a template that they laid on the wood blank, drew around it with a pencil, then bandsawed the line. If the blank was a little small to fit the peghead, they made the angle a little less so the blank could be used. Or, if adjusting the peghead angle would allow more necks from a board, no problem, the angle was adjusted.
I would have to assume things were similar at Gibson, and I suspect your 17 degrees and Mike's 13 degrees are just variation resulting from the building process, and that anywhere in that ballpark is close enough to be authentic.

As an aside;
When we are novice builders we don't always know what the important things are. If my plans had called for "approximately 15 degrees" or "13 to 17 degrees" perhaps I wouldn't have agonized over getting it "right" and could have spent more time and effort on the important things instead.

[PT66]

Just wondering. Why would the peg head be larger on a mandola? Same number and type of tuners.

[Bernie Daniel]

Just wondering. Why would the peg head be larger on a mandola? Same number and type of tuners.

Perhaps for proper proportions from a visual perspective? The tuners on a mandocello are the same size as a mandolin also but a mandolin size peg head would look "out of place" on a mandocello? At least that is my guess.

[lenf12]

Perhaps for proper proportions from a visual perspective? The tuners on a mandocello are the same size as a mandolin also but a mandolin size peg head would look "out of place" on a mandocello? At least that is my guess.

Or for more structural support due to additional string tension on mandolas and mandocellos. The strings are much heavier on these larger mando family instruments.

Len B.
Clearwater, FL