Vintage Gibson? Mandolin Identification

[Brian H.]

Hello and thanks for letting me join your forum.
I am thinking about purchasing a mandolin from a friend. It’s missing a few tuners but looks to possibly be an old Gibson. Can anyone help me with identifying it?
Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Randi Gormley]

whoa. did someone restring that as a uke or something?

[Timbofood]

Not one breath about that says Gibson to me.

[MikeEdgerton]

This instrument was not made by Gibson. I'm pretty sure it may have been manufactured in the Chicago area but it most likely didn't look like that when it left the factory. That's quite an odd instrument.

[Brian H.]

Thank you for your replies!
I didn’t look Gibson to me either.

[allenhopkins]

...That's quite an odd instrument.

Yeah. Headstock and body shape resemble this presumably-Harmony-made Columbia mandolin. Soundhole's a whole other matter: large and close to the neck. Converted from eight to four strings, presumably either to be played as a uke, or because the prior owner preferred single courses.

Prior owner also presumably installed the faux "Gibson" inlay. Tailpiece a common US style. Can't tell if the top wood figure is real or painted; others with more expertise may be able to say.

An oddity, never a Gibson, but someone lavished a fair amount of work on it back in the day.

[Jim Garber]

It looks like a possibly Regal-made (Chicago) budget mandolin (originally) converted to a four-string. I think the person who did the work re-topped it with some oak flooring, plugged 4 of the 8 tuner holes but left an 8-string nut. This may be a lot closer to a Gibso refrigerator than a Gibson mandolin.

This is an M-5 Gibson fridge for comparison

[MikeEdgerton]

I think it was re-topped as well with a piece of oak veneer, probably from the side of dresser or something. Either way, lots of work.

[jaycat]

This is what is referred to, in current jargon, as a "hot mess."

[NickR]

The instrument is almost certainly one made by Harmony circa 1930. It looks very similar to those sold by Harmony's owner Sears, Roebuck branded as a Supertone. It has many similarities to Regal's lower end models at that time. However, those "brassy" style tuners were used by Harmony on instruments in the late 20s early 30s. I have them on a Harmony made Supertone all mahogany parlour guitar from that time.

Here is a photo of a 1920s Supertone mandolin- which has the complete fingerboard unlike the mandolin being discussed here. https://www.banjohangout.org/photo/33204

The photo at the bottom is not the Supertone mandolin shown in the link above. It is a late 1930s Supertone and I cannot delete it. Here is the 1920s Supertone.

[nmiller]

This is definitely not a Harmony mandolin, as demonstrated by the pictures above. The body shape, soundhole size and position are wrong. Plus, it appears to have an oak top, which Harmony never used. It's a rather unusual instrument, and not a product of any of the major American factories of the time (though there were a million smaller workshops around).

[MikeEdgerton]

That oak top and the sound hole aren't original to that instrument.

[Jim Hilburn]

Way off subject but I was looking through the "Gibson Story" book and saw that in the 40's they made trombones.