Once in a while you see an eBay seller who refuses to ship an item. So if you live in greater Los Angeles, this may interest you; if not, well, you're stuck.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/C1924-VINTAG...YAAOSwvflZPLRW
Once in a while you see an eBay seller who refuses to ship an item. So if you live in greater Los Angeles, this may interest you; if not, well, you're stuck.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/C1924-VINTAG...YAAOSwvflZPLRW
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Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
Well, I guess I could have my "agent" pick it up for me...............if it goes cheap enough.
wish i had an agent in la
Dang. Only $610. I could probably have gotten a cheap flight to one of four airports within 35 miles of this mandolin and still be under market.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
Well, I scored this one. I'll report back here when I lay hands on it. Btw, what would you say is market value for it? I'm surmising it's a 1925, from looking at The Archive.
The serial number alone would suggest 1928.
Oh! Can you fill me in on deciphering the serial number (I'm sure this is well explained elsewhere). I'm looking at the sequence of listed A-Jr.s, and it fits in as a '25 or '26.
Joe Spann (Spann's Guide to Gibson 1902-1941) contains a list of serial numbers and that of yours falls neatly in 1928. When the thing arrives, have a look inside; up by the neck block, and there should be a "Factory Order Number" stamped there from which it should be possible to confirm the year.
The nearest one to yours in the "Archive", 82732, has a shipment date from 1828 (I said serial number "alone" my previous post) the FON construction date may well be earlier; possibly a year or two.
Ajr 82703 was also shipped in 1928.
The Archive is confusing because for many instruments it has older "traditional" date estimatesbased on lists that were published before Spann's bookas well as Spann's estimates, which can differ by a couple of years. It used to be an article of faith that snakehead production stopped in 1926, but then along came Spann with new information suggesting that the last of the snakeheads were shipped in 1928.
Take, for example, this listing:
http://www.mandolinarchive.com/gibson/serial/83001
The first two lines of data read:
Obviously both of those dates can't be right. Most experts, while they might stop short of endorsing every detail of Spann's new lists, agree that his research represents a major step forward in dating systems.1926 manufacture date (traditional estimates)
1928 shipment date, according to Spann's Guide to Gibson
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
As to the question of value: it's certainly worth more than $610. A fully original, clean snakehead Ajr with hardshell case can bring $1,500. But this one has no case, and in place of the 1-piece bridge and cloud tailpiece, it has the 2-piece bridge and "The Gibson" long tailpiece typical of fancier snakeheads. While the nonstandard hardware might well be considered an upgrade, it probably isn't original, which detracts from any collector cachet the instrument might have. So, probably $1,100 to $1,200. If you're able to find a period hardshell case, it might bring the value up to $1,300 or so, not accounting for any repairs it might need.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
it does have a nice pick guard that looks origonal and tail piece. these are often replacement. a pick guard like that would go for quite a bit on ebay just solf separately. there fore it should be worth 1200 usd easy. and they are going up .
Well, I finally picked this one up. It's just lovely. In great shape, neck is straight as an arrow, completely playable and ready to go after changing strings. FON appears to be 8833- can anyone shed some light via Spann's for me? Here are some pictures and maybe a video soon, and I'll eventually forward info to The Archive. Thanks to all who contributed info in this thread.
Last edited by paul dirac; Jul-27-2017 at 8:58pm.
That FON falls within the series identified from 1927 so the conclusion should be that they started building it in 1927 and it finally left the factory in 1928.
Perhaps someone with more knowlege of this particular model's features will chip in re. the originality of the bridge and tailpiece. I'm not sure whether this model had "Th Gibson" on the headstock?
This has to be one of the last Ajrs made, before they were replaced by the A0. Who knows, maybe there was some slippage in specs near the end.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
I'm willing to say "perhaps original" regarding the peghead logo. It's hard to know what to say about the bridge and tailpiece, which are more easily replaced.
It's well known that other snakehead models saw some slippage in specs. Anecdotally I'd say there was more slippage after 1925.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
The originality of the tailpiece is easy to check. Take it off. Are there two to three extra holes there? The cloud base is totally different. I do believe there were times when Gibson swept the floor for parts or used something off spec to ship an instrument.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Great point, Mike. I believe, now that you mention it, that there's a clearly visible extra hole below this tailpiece. I'll check it presently.
Martin (and others), what makes you doubt the logo? I seem to recall reading here that later Jr.s had the screened logo.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
Well, this settles the logo issue...
Another possibility: it was sent back to Gibson for a later repair and they screened the logo and/or replaced the tailpiece at that time. With Gibson, you never know...
The script is the same as my '24 A1 but there seems to be more space between the top of the headstock and the end two tuner pegs on the one illustrated. On mine the logo is at an angle with the tiniest part covered by the D tuner bushing.
To my eye, my silkscreening is in the same position as #83001 from The Archive, which I referenced.
Any variance in screening position just chalked up to variability at the factory?
And here's mine, with the extra screw and hole- without taking my tailpiece off, does this look consistent with the holes for the cloud?
Well then, to my satisfaction, this all settles the questions of what was original here, assuming that the 2-piece bridge is a replacement, as well. Thanks, all.
I think I'll try and acquire a cloud replacement (any opinions on how much one of these is worth?) and sell this current tailpiece on. I'll also keep an eye out for a correct 1-piece bridge...
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