Oh, my. It's just like my little A-50 would look after a Popeye-spinach-and-steroids cocktail. Does it have an I-beam for a truss rod?
Oh my oh my oh my...
Jerry M.
Oh, my. It's just like my little A-50 would look after a Popeye-spinach-and-steroids cocktail. Does it have an I-beam for a truss rod?
Oh my oh my oh my...
Jerry M.
I guess that truss rod cover answers some questions ...
How would/should this be tuned? Like a double course alto guitar or requinto? Or some sort of 5ths tuning?
That is so cool! An hour from “home”? That’s just amazing!
I live in Kalamazoo, I’d really love to see that! I hope that you have someone who knows what’s what do any of the maintenance, if it’s just stringing, I’d be happy to help but, if it needs more “attention” there are a few people I’d trust. Glad you know someone.
The TP looks like a “normal” mandolin design to me, I doubt they would have custom built a twelve hook design for the design, too expensive.
So, you have something very interesting right there! It would be a blast to spend an afternoon with!
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
Who is "he?"
If this one has been around K'zoo, it may be a mate to Barney's, as Gibson routinely made prototypes in threes back then.
A-40-12. Now we have a model designation for it, anyway. Too much!
Looking at the tailpiece, it appears that they just crammed 12 strings onto the tabs that were made to hold eight.
Last edited by Paul Hostetter; Dec-12-2017 at 2:13pm. Reason: Facts, ma'am.
I wonder how close this is in size to the six string Gibson M-6?
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Was the owner an employee back when this was produced?
I agree the possibility of a couple being made is pretty high, three or four makes perfect sense.
Yep, I made the stock TP statement back in #55, makes way more sense than some kind of custom piece for an instrument with, dare I say it, very limited market?
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
Limited enough that the M-6 died. I had a friend that had the Goldtone copy of the 6 string. It was pretty near impossible to play but then again I'm not Barney Kessel.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Dang, the headstock is longer than the back of the neck.
Clark Beavans
And I was responding to the 2nd photo in post #50 at the end of page 2, thinking it was the last post in the thread . . . then I realized I hadn't seen page 3.
Anyway, that photo makes the headstock look really heavy, and the neck really short.
Clark Beavans
Sorry about that. The scale is 14".
I kind of suspected that it would look like that.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Well, did anyone really think it was going to be a custom 12 string tailpiece? They maybe made what, 3 of these? Makes no sense for them to have gone to the expense to put something like that into production, does it?
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
Yeah, and hard to tell from pic, but looks like a metal strap pin. My ca. late 50's, early 60's A-40 has the cream colored pin, more to match the binding. And this tailpiece also looks to be split?
This tailpiece is indeed about to blow. They weren't engineered for the pull of 12 strings, especially not fat ones like these. Check the rip across the bottom by the edge of the body:
The sideways tabs would have ripped sooner, but I think the fold will die sooner. There are ways to fix this tailpiece. Any new base that you might put on will have the same engineering issues, so it makes more sense to rebuild the existing one.
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