Peg Head veneer or paint? Army & Navy Special, style DY

[tkdboyd]

I will be finishing up a pancake style mandolin, and want to make it look as close as possible to a WWI Gibson. Can someone let me know if it had a veneered peghead or was it just painted?

I am not trying to make a counterfeit, only a tribute of sorts. My great grandfather served in WWI and played mandolin. I have his helmet and a mandolin method book. I want to make the mandolin playable, but I envision something like a large shadowbox including the above mentioned items.

Thank you in advance

[mandroid]

Id guess paint .. A friend of years back had an Olive Drab painted Original.

Foggy memory ..

[tkdboyd]

Id guess paint .. A friend of years back had an Olive Drab painted Original.

Foggy memory ..

Thank you for the reply!

[sunburst]

I have one in the shop and I finally got around to checking it to see.
The answer is: Both. There is a thin, "ebonized" veneer that is sort of a gray/green/brown/black, and the surface looks to have a coat of black paint (probably pigmented shellac). Gibson did that on some instruments, used a nearly black veneer and painted it black also. I took a couple of pictures but they're still in the memory card in the camera in the shop. Perhaps I'll remember to post them here.