Coffee coloer tuner buttons on F4's

[Gary Hedrick]

Does anyone know the reason so many 1924 F4's have buttons that have aged into a coffee color.

It seems that this is a 1924 thing and you don't see them in 23's or 25's.

Just wondering.....

[MANDOLINMYSTER]

I'm thinking they were made that color, and probably for just a short run. Theres another marbelized color that showed up in the late teens I think. Usually you just see the grained ivoroid type.

[mrmando]

Coffee grounds are sometimes still used as packing fill, although the practice is a lot less common now that we have styrofoam and other goodies. It seems a crate full of tuner sets, packed in coffee grounds, was inadvertently left out in the rain on a warm night...

Just kidding, I have no idea.

[Darryl Wolfe]

They were made that way. They show up on mid to late 24 F4's and A4's with pointed end Waverly's. Quite rare actually. Catalog N mentions onyx ivoroid buttons. I'm not sure that really means those brown buttons though.

[MandolinFlyer]

Does anyone make reproductions or replacement buttons of these?

[Gary Hedrick]

Darryl, are they in the 24 catalog? I have owned 2 of them and Ken has one for sale and one of the music stores has one also. They really do look interesting. I always thought that it was some kind of degradation of the materials but thanks for pointing this out.

I hadn't seen an A4 with them so I learned something there.

[Glassweb]

I agree with Darryl that they were made with a darker material. An experiment? Who will ever know! Cool though...

[Ken Waltham]

I have had a few of those, and yes, they were/are 1924's. They definately not a degradation, but were made that way.

[Goodin]

Ok, so how about the dark brown headstock veneer? I have seen at least one A-4 snakehead from 1924 with it.

[Glassweb]

I had a 24' H4 with that veneer. "Business as unusual" at good ole Gibson!

[Ken Waltham]

On the F4 I have, they are the round end, more modern Waverlies.

[mrmando]

Here's a Martin 2-15 with coffee buttons.