Gibson distressing technique...

[T.D.Nydn]

I am curious about gibsons distressing technique.i read that they will distress a mandolin for you...not using sand paper or anything but some kind of UV light treatment to thin the finish and do something to the wood? Does anyone know more about this? Thanks. Ted

[Spruce]

[David Houchens]

Popcorn butter. That's it!

[MikeEdgerton]

Past thread 1

Past thread 2

There are more.

[Big Joe]

You are not likely to get a definitive answer to this question. There are only a very few left that know what was done in the distressing process, and we are not talking...in great detail. Some things are better not shared with the public. One could really screw an instrument up by trying without really knowing what you are doing. I don't know if they are still distressing anymore. It is time and labor intensive and uses a number of techniques with the wood and the finish. Not for the do it yourselfer. I've seen some very bad results from people thinking it must be easy and they could surely do it. Wrongo reindeer lovers ��.

[Spruce]

Wrongo reindeer lovers ��.

I'll say...

[T.D.Nydn]

Big joe,,,thank you very much,,I would never attempt it myself,that's not where I was going,,I just wrote to Gibson repair dept. to see if they still do it,,I'm interested,,thanks. Ted

[Glassweb]

Thanks for chiming in Joe. While I've played some superb sounding and playing Gibson Distressed Models, I have to say that the distressing results themselves were futile at best. I don't know if the distressing resulted in the superior sound (to the Master Models without distressing) or if Gibson just chose the best "in the white" F5s as candidates for distressing, but either way these mandolins in no way looked naturally aged. I understand the "relic" market in electrics, etc... and so on, but as someone who's played and owned a bunch of vintage Gibson F5s let's just say they can't match the naturally played/aged article. That said, some of those DMM sounded as good as or better than many Lloyd Loar F5s I've played.

[Spruce]

...but either way these mandolins in no way looked naturally aged.

Did u happen to see one of the early ones? (Probably "no").
Different animal than what came later...

[Wes Brandt]

"Better Buttery Flavacol Theater Popcorn Seasoning Salt -16oz"

Please DO NOT feed this to your children, unless you hate them but who knows what all those chemicals might do as an "aging" potion… the FDA probably doesn't. Makes you question the intelligence of the human race in general, sometimes.


http://www.amazon.com/Buttery-Flavac...0_SR256%2C320_

Ingredients
Salt, artificial flavors, artificial sweetener (Acesulfam K), yellow #5 Lake (E102), and yellow #6 Lake (E110). Contains soy. NO MSG

[Dave Hanson]

I can't understand the great need for secrecy, is it so exotic/technical/ wonderful that it needs to be a secret ?

Dave H

[Pribar]

The best way is to give the poor thing to me to play, that should distress the dickens out of it (and anything else in a half mile radius)

[MikeEdgerton]

Every company has their trade secrets even if they aren't all that secret. Me, I'm more interested in the perfume they were working on to add the smell of an old Loar to the new Gibson mandolins. That seemed to drop by the wayside.

[fscotte]

Glue some steel wool or flexible sandpaper to your left hand, your belly, your right forearm, and your pick. Play aggressively for 4 hours.

[T.D.Nydn]

Thanks,but you all understand it's more than a worn look that just interests me..

[Demetrius]

This was my 2002 Derrington Dmm, and I'll tell you what.
Thile grabbed this and had to look inside to distinguish wether
it was a Loar or not. They nailed it with this one.

[MarkELynch]

It is a beauty but I do not understand the 2002 date. The Gibson press release is dated 2003 and the Master list complied by Carles and others lists DMMs beginning in 2003. Is there a story here?

https://www.facebook.com/notes/gibso...t/281200928299

[T.D.Nydn]

Officespace,,,just awesome,,my next mandolin,,...

[MikeEdgerton]

...I'll tell you what. Thile grabbed this and had to look inside to distinguish wether it was a Loar or not....

You know, I do that on mine every time I pick it up and I'm always disappointed that mine isn't a Loar. Nice mandolin.

[T.D.Nydn]

Gibson just wrote me back and said they are no longer distressing mandolins...

[Demetrius]

Is there a story? Yep! It was a prototype, before the prototype...

[bradlaird]

Glue some steel wool or flexible sandpaper to your left hand, your belly, your right forearm, and your pick. Play aggressively for 4 hours.

It's simple. All other methods are insincere.

Skip your first steps. Take pristine mandolin and play aggressively for 35 years. From time to time forget where you laid it and find it in the morning covered in dew on some guy's picnic table. Once in a while just bash it against an SM57 and don't forget to spill things on it. Clean rarely.

[T.D.Nydn]

Ok,,now I'm wondering if Gibson is not going to distress any more mandolins,why keep the secret "U.V. LIGHT TREATMENT" a secret...

[Demetrius]

Wish I still had it...

[Hendrik Ahrend]

It is a beauty but I do not understand the 2002 date. The Gibson press release is dated 2003 and the Master list complied by Carles and others lists DMMs beginning in 2003. Is there a story here?

https://www.facebook.com/notes/gibso...t/281200928299

Me too, I'd like to read that story. Mark, I'm sure officespace's (ex) DMM is one of the Jonathan Cooper-distressed proto types. Gibson obviously made a few more protos before #D70288 (with "#1 distressed" on the label). One of those is the (side bound) DMM from Gibson's press release website. It looks quite similar to # D70288 (with nice dark black/brown sunburst) and is dated ....2, 2003. Since the serial # is not verified, it's not on Carles' face book MM list.