Headstock script

[doanepoole]

I was looking at one of my mandolins this morning without any script on the headstock. I think it looks real classy, I think, and "natural", like the mando was built, but not branded. It makes perfect sense why builders would put their brandname on their instruments' headstocks, and I'm not suggesting its a foul practice or anything, but I started wondering when this became common practice. Seems like at some point in antiquity this was not seen as a necessary measure.

Any historians out there know who was among the first to start laying script in their headstocks.

[Darryl Wolfe]

I have no idea, but I can't think of anyone earlier than Gibson in about 1905 or so.

[Bob DeVellis]

There were certainly manufacturers' logos with names (e.g., "The Waldo") or initials (e.g., "E. H. Co.") on pickguards before 1905, but no earlier examples of highly visible brand identifiers on headstocks spring to mind. Martin had an inconspicuous stamping on the back of the headstock prior to then but the decal on the face didn't show up until the 1930s.

[sunburst]

That's an interesting point. I've often felt that a large name logo detracted from the design of certain instruments. I started out by not putting my name on my instruments, but the first guy that ordered a custom mandolin included in his list of requirements; "you have to put your name on the peghead!"
I started out with a tiny little script name just above the nut where the strings go across it. Well, people said "Why did you put your name way down there? Why don't you put it up at the top where people can see it?" and I'm thinking "don't you see that it clutters the peghead design? Isn't that inlay pattern nicer without a big-ol name scrawled across the top of it?"
Well, I eventually re-did my peghead inlays with a prominant name script included in the design, up at the top where it "belongs", and a fellow who plays one in a band said "you need to make your name bigger on the pegheads. You can't read it in the pictures of the band."
Oh well...

[John Ely]

I think it all depends on the design of the logo, the shape of the headstock, and the other decoration on the headstock. Sometimes the name looks okay up there, and sometimes it looks out of place.

I do sometimes feel like sending like the instrument makers whose instruments I own a bill for advertising. The problem is, not many people see me play.

[mandoluthier1]

Here a good example of where script would be detrimental to the aesthetics of the instrument.
In addition to the bookmatched Ziricote overlay, this mandolin is also receiving a rather ornate pearl inlay.
Adding my name would simply make things way too cluttered, and why would I want to cover up all of that beautiful figure?
If anyone needs to know who built it, they can simply ask the owner.
John

[doanepoole]

I could not agree with you more. That is a very, very classy headtsock as is. Script, in my opinion, would detract from the beauty.