1937 F5 in Classifieds

[Pete Martin]

Played this at Wintergrass. It is a GREAT mandolin!!!

[Glassweb]

Played this at Wintergrass. It is a GREAT mandolin!!!

I'm with Pete... I played it at Wintergrass today as well and thought it was a great sounding example...

[Spruce]

Yep... :(

[f5loar]

Then 1937 must have been a great year for the Gibson F5. You got this one, you got Hoss and you got one of Apollon's favorites all from 1937.

[Hendrik Ahrend]

Then 1937 must have been a great year for the Gibson F5. You got this one, you got Hoss and you got one of Apollon's favorites all from 1937.

I wonder if Hoss already sounded great prior to its top being refinished, scratched and regraduated to veeery thin.

[Ken Waltham]

Nope.

[f5loar]

I don't think anyone can say if Hoss was good from the get go or not. When it was first found it had already had a factory refinish I think from the 50's. That's one reason it was gone over again, and again and along the way got other re-dos done to it. So if 2 of these 3 '37s sounded good with their original finish and tone bars, etc. you just would have speculate that Hoss was too. By 1937 I would also speculate only one guy at Gibson could build the F5, hence the low production rate throughout the 1930's. I would say Hoss is a better sounding F5 today then it was originally but you have to take into account it's got at least a million miles of "sam" on it. That's a lot of thrashing and pounding. Someone once said the really beat up ones always sound better than the pretty ones. If you go by Monroe's, Marshall's, Waller's, and Sam's than that would seem to hold true.

[Tom Smart]

Lawrence got his hands on that one at Wintergrass and was also impressed with it.

He told me he noticed the neck joins the body (the crosspiece) a little south of the 16th fret. Not right at the 15th fret, where you'd expect the neck to join--at least more or less.

Any insight from you F5 experts as to why that might be? Are there other examples where the neck join varies that much from standard?

[Darryl Wolfe]

The Barry Mitterhoff F5 joins there too. It's pretty uncommon and appears like a simple error.

[Glassweb]

I don't think anyone can say if Hoss was good from the get go or not. When it was first found it had already had a factory refinish I think from the 50's. That's one reason it was gone over again, and again and along the way got other re-dos done to it. So if 2 of these 3 '37s sounded good with their original finish and tone bars, etc. you just would have speculate that Hoss was too. By 1937 I would also speculate only one guy at Gibson could build the F5, hence the low production rate throughout the 1930's. I would say Hoss is a better sounding F5 today then it was originally but you have to take into account it's got at least a million miles of "sam" on it. That's a lot of thrashing and pounding. Someone once said the really beat up ones always sound better than the pretty ones. If you go by Monroe's, Marshall's, Waller's, and Sam's than that would seem to hold true.

yes, but Mike & Sam's mandolins have been heavily worked on. to me it doesn't matter too much whether an instrument is new or old... it's either a good instrument or it isn't. not to say that time and playing won't make it a better one...

[Darryl Wolfe]

yes, but Mike & Sam's mandolins have been heavily worked on. to me it doesn't matter too much whether an instrument is new or old... it's either a good instrument or it isn't. not to say that time and playing won't make it a better one...

+1 .... Mike and Sams mandolins are both heavily modified. Both have been "apart"

[pfox14]

I can tell you after closely studying Gibson's shipping ledgers that they did not sell a lot of F-5s in the mid to late 30s, so I bet it's fairly rare.

[Spruce]

He told me he noticed the neck joins the body (the crosspiece) a little south of the 16th fret. Not right at the 15th fret, where you'd expect the neck to join--at least more or less.


Wow...
Didn't even notice that... :confused:

[Pete Martin]

All I know is if I had the spare change in my couch, this one would be mine now.

:mandosmiley::):mandosmiley:

[Spruce]

...ditto...

[ViolinSmith]

He told me he noticed the neck joins the body (the crosspiece) a little south of the 16th fret. Not right at the 15th fret, where you'd expect the neck to join--at least more or less.

Any insight from you F5 experts as to why that might be? Are there other examples where the neck join varies that much from standard?

I have the F5 that is one serial number before Apollon's, it also has a neck that joins the body at the 16th fret. Since there are more than one example from this era I suspect this might be intentional, maybe that last guy building F5s decided to "innovate".

I find it interesting that F5s were still being built in batches (of 2, but still batches).

[Tom Smart]

Very interesting--and very cool that you brought another 1937 F5 to the discussion with your first post.

I know this is a loaded question, but how does yours sound & play in light of f5loar's speculation that "1937 must have been a great year for the Gibson F5"?

[ViolinSmith]

The A and E strings are about the best I have ever heard. Good D string, with good tone and punch. The G string drops off on tone. Volume is good over all. I used a Tone-rite on it and improved the G string a lot. G chord chop, just so-so. B chord chop could crack a tooth.

I think it is more a sound that Apollon would have liked. Maybe that is why he had one.

[CES]

Cool, thanks for sharing...

[BradKlein]

Played this at Wintergrass. It is a GREAT mandolin!!!

Did anyone play the 1935 Gibson F-7 for sale by the same owner. I'd love to play the two side by side. The short necked F-7-10-12 design is so odd, but cool - and I've only had a chance to play one.

[Spruce]

Did anyone play the 1935 Gibson F-7 for sale by the same owner. I'd love to play the two side by side. The short necked F-7-10-12 design is so odd, but cool - and I've only had a chance to play one.

I did, but it wasn't really fair to the F7...
The '37 is one hellova mandolin... :disbelief: