This Gibson legit?

[Chris Gray]

I've never seen a Gibson like this...

https://reverb.com/item/32902800-gib...l-case-nos-usa

[MontanaMatt]

I can’t say that I’d care to see it

[William Smith]

Yes Gibson did a small run of these! I have no interest in her as its not my thing but it could be KOOL for someone if it wasn't BLUE!

[MikeEdgerton]

I've never seen one in blue but that doesn't mean it didn't come from the factory that color, it just means I never saw one in blue. Goldtone made a G-6 as well that was much cheaper than this. A friend of mine had one and honestly it's near impossible for me to play, your mileage may vary. There's a reason nobody has scooped this up at the reduced price. Here are some past threads if you'd like to know more about them.

Here's a Goldtone model. NFI.

[William Smith]

You want Blue you should see the ultra ugly 1924 Gibson Tenor Lute that I got cheap with a busted banjolin short scale neck-the top was at least original blonde but its already been sent to Gary Vessel for a correct Mandola Snakehead neck and a body refinish probably in Sheraton Brown! It was for sale for a long time on Reverb and evilbay for a lot of $ but since it was there for years I made a very cheap offer and well they took it and I know what these things sound like correctly converted!

[MikeEdgerton]

Years ago a mandolin made by a friend of mine showed up in the classifieds with what I will call an unusual color and inlay pattern on the fretboard. When I called him to rib him about the instrument his answer was "Mike, the customer ordered it, I built it, and good taste never entered the equation".

[John Rosett]

Afew years ago, someone posted about one of those that they had converted to a 5 string with fanned frets. It was a really cool thing to do with one.

[rcc56]

The year before Gibson bankrupted and Henry J. was given his walking papers, Gibson's special editions included not one, but two J-45 acoustic guitar models in green. One was a rather generic lime green, the other an olive drab green that, to be polite, was one of the ugliest colors I have ever seen.

[Sue Rieter]

Okay, this doesn't have anything to do with Gibson, but you guys are talking about crazy looking instruments, so I just have to add a link to this guitar on Jake Wildwood's blog.

Be sure to look at the black light pic.

Sue

[William Smith]

Okay, this doesn't have anything to do with Gibson, but you guys are talking about crazy looking instruments, so I just have to add a link to this guitar on Jake Wildwood's blog.

Be sure to look at the black light pic.

Sue

Yep that's hideous alright!

[MikeEdgerton]

Well, as long as we are going there, Carter's has this Martin on sale right now.

[Sue Rieter]

I took a look at that. That is very....... green

[Dillon]

What's the tuning on this thing?

[Ray(T)]

Well, as long as we are going there, Carter's has this Martin on sale right now.

There was a Gibson F in exactly that colour for sale in Paris (the real “French” one) a couple of years ago. It was attributed to Dave Harvey so it possibly sounded OK.

Edit- it was actually 4 years ago. Scroll down to post 39 here - https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...bson-F5G/page2

[MikeEdgerton]

What's the tuning on this thing?

The six-string mandolin shaped object is tuned like a guitar an octave up if I recall.

[Dillon]

So you'd be playing guitar chord shapes? So it's basically a mandotar?

[MikeEdgerton]

So you'd be playing guitar chord shapes? So it's basically a mandotar?

Yup. Now for the bad part. It's darn near impossible to make those shapes in the allotted space half the time, at least it was for me. Not real easy to play. Again YMMV.

[dhergert]

... So it's basically a mandotar?

Or a Gitolin???

From the fingerboard cut and the lack of binding in key locations I'd guess it's a basic A-9 allocated with 6 strings and painted interestingly.

[Jacob]

Okay, this doesn't have anything to do with Gibson, but you guys are talking about crazy looking instruments, so I just have to add a link to this guitar on Jake Wildwood's blog.

Be sure to look at the black light pic.

Sue

Bluegrass, absolutely not!
Rock & Roll, oh yeah.
Give it some DR Luminescent Neon Orange strings.

Then see it under black light.

[MarkELynch]

I've never seen one in blue but that doesn't mean it didn't come from the factory that color, it just means I never saw one in blue.

In answer to the Chris’ question, it is a legitimate Gibson.
Here is a snippet from the 2002 Gibson price list, the M-6 was available in blue and three other colors. It proved to be an unpopular model.



Mark

[MikeEdgerton]

If anyone is interested in these guitar mandolins they should look at Barney Kessel's 12-string Gibson guitar mandolin.

[allenhopkins]

For anyone interested in playing guitar chords in the mandolin range, I offer the Bruko (German) octave guitar. I bought one of these from the late lamented Sandy's Music, Central Square in Cambridge MA, probably 35 years ago. Don't think they make them any more. Although I still own mine, it has sorta been an instrument in search of a real musical application, at least IMHO. I took it as a travel guitar on a cross-country railroad trip a few years ago, but the second time I made the trip, I sprang for a Little Martin which at least played in the guitar range.

Here's a vid of someone playing the Bruko. When he plays chords at the end, you can hear the intonation problems often related to short-scale instruments with uncompensated bridges -- which seem to be in tune until you fret them...




These seem to pop up on Reverb etc. for less than $200, which is about what I paid for mine in the '80's.

[Jeff Mando]

You can kind of approximate a mandolin sound on a regular guitar with Nashville tuning for the price of a set of strings....many online examples.

[MikeEdgerton]

You can approximate the sound of a guitar played high on the fretboard on these 6-stringed mandolin shaped objects as well.

[J.Albert]

Gibson did make an "M-6" for a while, that's the first one I ever saw "in blue"...