1907 A-3, very clean but needs a little work

[nmiller]

I saw this on Ebay, but I noticed that it was barely a 20 minute drive from me. I ended up getting it for a good enough price that I think I'll come out around market value once the restoration work is paid for. The serial dates from 1907, as do the features: inlayed "shell" pickguard, narrow V-shaped neck and a flattened carve profile in between the "Orville" style and the later oval-hole instruments. Everything appears to be original, including the canvas-covered end-opening case. It's missing most of the binding on one side of the neck, but otherwise it's all intact. There are a couple of 1/2" side cracks emanating from the screws that hold on the tailpiece, but no other structural damage.

I think it needs a neck reset and probably a refret to boot. The board is in pretty nice shape, but the frets have divots in them that go most of the way down. Is there anything unusual about this particular era of Gibson that would make these repairs more difficult than usual for a mandolin? I know that both neck resets and refrets are costly operations, but given the overall state of the instrument (and the low purchase price) I think they're easily justified.


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[Steve VandeWater]

Wow. That's a beautiful instrument. Congratulations

[nmiller]

After looking through Spann's Guide, it appears that the factory order number dates from 1906 but this serial was shipped in 1907. It must have been in construction over new year's.

I've had a little more time to play it, and it's still playable with light strings. The action gets pretty high up the neck, though, and there's a little bit of waviness that could be planed out. Still, the neck is in better shape than most 108-year-old instruments, so there's some good potential to make this one a player.