1963 Gibson f5 custom mandolin

[Brian Chapman]

I was wondering about a 1963 Gibson f5 manlin a friend had, whether it would be worth the cost to have new frets new bridge and nut, I had heard that starting sometime in the 60's the quality and sound started going downhill, any thoughts?

[Skip Kelley]

How does it sound? If it needs frets, well then it needs frets. A good set-up would help it play better also.

[slimt]

I dont know much about the 60s Gibson mandolins. But I would be all over it and get it cleaned up.

[Dave Greenspoon]

Birth-year mando for me. The F-5 had maybe a run of 50 pieces. Let me know if your friend wants to part with it.

[William Smith]

They can be great mandolins with some modifications, such as re-grad if one can get it cheap enough? They were pretty heavy in those years "wood and lacquer" Most all sound thin if that makes sense, not the power of those 20's-30's F-5's IMHO. A lot of bluegrass pickers had them but were modified like Larry Rice comes to mind. I don't think they made many F-5's in the 60's and all were custom ordered correct? I was able to get a 58 F-5 for a very good deal because it had a poor re-neck so I'm still waiting for Randy Wood to finish it-I had him take the back off and re-grad to Loar specs, new tone bar placement like a Loar and new neck with a deep set "cocked back a little extra" with 20's style flowerpot and pearl block inlays in fret board. I remember it had a thick lacquer to it so when I get it back I may painfully/time consuming strip the lacquer off so I don't get into the dye, if it doesn't sound great but I know Randy's work so I surmise it'll be pretty sweet! I just sent him hardware for it so I should get her back soon. I'm in the camp if they are nice leave them alone but with a basket case go ahead and modify? All said I should have a bit over 4G in mine and that's pretty good for an old piece of Gibson wood with a touch of Mr.Wood's brilliance.

[f5loar]

well a '63 is one of those "iffy" years. Could be okay, might not be so good. But as others say, you can get them "made over" and set up to be fine mandolins. I will say this, that Bill Monroe walked into a Nashville store in 1964 and saw a new F5 on the rack and liked it so much he bought it and used it as a spare until he got his 2nd Loar in 1972. Bill kept this '64 F5 for other special tunings and used it to record his "My Last Days on Earth" and then donated it to the CMHF where it resides today. So yes, good ones from this era do come up.