Oldest Lefty F-5 Ever Made

[Kip Welty]

Does anyone know what might be the oldest lefty F-5 on the planet ? I do not believe there were any made until maybe the 80's ? I am guessing most lefty players changed over to right handed until the 80's. I have never seen a lefty that had any age on it ?

[Mandolusional]

Not sure exactly but I've seen pictures of an old Gibson A lefty, and a lefty F4 as I recall. There's an old thread about lefty mandolins that might be useful.

[Kip Welty]

Tx for the info. How do you know if an A is lefty ? Maybe pick guard ?

I searched thru posts did not find anything on the F-4.

[MikeEdgerton]

If an A was built lefty originally it will have the side dots on the top of the neck and not on the bottom, assuming that somebody didn't go totally crazy when they converted it and assuming it had them originally. The pickguard holes would also be a giveaway.

[journeybear]

Also, a lefty A will have its nut with the grooves cut that way.

Didn't Orville Gibson carve a lefty F model early in his career? He was left-handed himself, after all ...

Searching through the mandolin archive, coming up empty, except for an A4 SN# 4440 with no info. Not sure how I was led there. :confused: That would be a 1908.

[MikeEdgerton]

A converted lefty would have the nut cut for a left handed mandolin. Nuts can easily be changed as can bridges.

[djeffcoat]

IIRC, I saw a list somewhere showing a lefty Gibson F model made in 1915.

DJ

[Kip Welty]

Wow

Lefty F from 1915. On a new mission. Wonder where to start the hunt ?

[djeffcoat]

Wow

Lefty F from 1915. On a new mission. Wonder where to start the hunt ?

I must correct myself, not 1915 but 1908 F2. See the attached link.

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/perl/show_mando.pl?3778

DJ

[Kip Welty]

Tx, looks like the 1908 was sold on ebay. Wonder who owns it ?

[Lefty Luthier]

I built this lefty in 1962. It has been through several owners in the same family. Photo shows it with strings set for right-hand play but it has been changed back and forth several times in my shop as kids grew into their own custom instruments.

[Lefty Luthier]

Sorry, the photo above was improperly archived. That poor unfortunate with the reversed peghead was built in the same year for a very confused customer. This is the correct one.

[Michael Gowell]

Not an F, but from Mandolin Brothers newsletter May 27,1988...

"1913-14 Gibson A #16109; RARE, very clean, blonde, original LEFTY in excellent condition. Some crazing, minimal fret wear, original lefty pickguard.
Plays very well.' Cash price $950.

That lefty pick guard is interesting - not many could have survived.
And just to show you how the market has changed in 20 years...

"2/18/24 GIBSON SIGNED LLOYD LOAR F-5 #75695 with Virzi tone producer. Big, full Loar sound. Excellent; has new frets." Cash price $17,500

[D C Blood]

Isn't there something a builder has to do differently in the bracing when building a lefty? Reversing the pattern inside or something. The way I understand, it's not just notching the nut and bridge saddle and putting the strings on backwards on a lefty A model...:confused:

[toddjoles]

If I was building a lefty I would flop the bracing too for consistancy. but I don't believe it's all that necessary as I've seen a few A's set up lefty and the tone was fine (with just a lefty bridge and nut) with no sign of a sunken top.

[Lefty Luthier]

I do switch the tone bars but am not certain it makes much difference since I regularly string right hand instruments left handed when testing prior to finishing and have never found any measurable difference.

[Christopher Standridge]

Lefty,
What is your deal?
You seem to contradict yourself a whole lot, no?


There are a few right ways but a lot more wrong ways to construct a quality mandolin soundboard. Misplacing the treble tone bar is one of the worst mistakes one can make other than not shaping the proper profile. I have been building quality mandolins for near on 50 years and I have NEVER heard one that sounded right with weird tone bar placement. I agree that cutting that tone bar off would have been preferable and what I would have done; but having said that, not removing it would have likely doomed that mandolin to sound no better than those Asian pieces of junk flooding the market.

from the thread:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50312&page=2

Where you advised a first time builder to remove and reposition his tone bars b/c they were a little misplaced.

[Lefty Luthier]

Lefty,
What is your deal?
You seem to contradict yourself a whole lot, no?



from the thread:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50312&page=2

Where you advised a first time builder to remove and reposition his tone bars b/c they were a little misplaced.

There is quite a bit of difference between what is done in a shop and what is sold to a customer. No contradiction there.

[Kip Welty]

My only lefty I own (F-5) was made by Allen Jones. I love it. I am also a lover of old instruments, like many of us. Thought it may be fun to pursue collecting lefty mandolins. Will be tuff, I know. I was in Philadelphia a few months ago, and stopped by the http://www.vintage-instruments.com/. They have great vintage instruments. We had a talk about vintage lefty mandolins. Conclusion lefty's are very very rare. http://www.vintage-instruments.com/ said they have never seen one.

[Kip Welty]

Lefty, who owns the one you made ?

Looks great.

[mandroid]

More to the point after Gibson started the F5 , in 23, how long did it take before they made a mirror image
of their own product with all the points and scroll and such, or did that effort fall to other builders not a part of the big G.. who sold enough righties to not be concerned with southpaws..

Did the Patents have to expire?

[Kip Welty]

No idea

[Gail Hester]

Interesting topic, there are no old ones that I am aware of. Here's a lefty fern that I'm working on.

[John Gardinsky]

Wow Gail, that is some nice work. John