interesting pickguard hardware on Ebay Gibson

[jim simpson]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1921-GIBSON...cAAOSwW5dfZpqd

This particular pickguard hardware is unfamiliar to me!

[Ray(T)]

It says “all original” according to a 20 year old appraisal. Well, I’ve never seen one like that so I suppose it is, although that’s not to say that it hasn’t been altered in the last 20 years. Looks like the bracket started out as a violin or viola chin rest. Hopefully the buyer will take it off again. I also suspect that, looking at the bridge, that it’s earlier than 1921 (or the bridge isn’t original either).

[Mike Buesseler]

The guard looks more like a cutting board than a pick guard.

[slimt]

The guard looks more like a cutting board than a pick guard.

Thats for that Chop you all refer too.

[jim simpson]

It says “all original” according to a 20 year old appraisal. Well, I’ve never seen one like that so I suppose it is, although that’s not to say that it hasn’t been altered in the last 20 years. Looks like the bracket started out as a violin or viola chin rest. Hopefully the buyer will take it off again. I also suspect that, looking at the bridge, that it’s earlier than 1921 (or the bridge isn’t original either).

Here's an early Gibson clamp that does utilize the chin rest barrel design:

[MikeEdgerton]

I'm pretty sure it never left the factory that way.

[Ray(T)]

Here's an early Gibson clamp that does utilize the chin rest barrel design:

Certainly not from 1921. The carpenter jack mounting that comes with the Fishman bridge pickup looks pretty much the same oas the one the o/p refers.

[rcc56]

Y'all are being too polite. Neither the pickguard, nor the clamp were made by the Gibson company.

And the bridge is suspect. I have seen brown rosewood bridges on Gibson's from this period, but never one of that color. I suspect that it is not rosewood at all, but one of the red tropical hardwoods that we see in woodworker's shops. And from what little I can see in the pictures, the workmanship and dimensions appear too heavy.

The transition from solid bridges to adjustable bridges began in 1921, but they did not appear on all mandolins until later.

Bottom line: It's not a $2000 instrument. And that price would be pushing it even if it did have a complete set of original parts.

[MikeEdgerton]

Yeah, I was just trying to be nice.

[NickR]

I imagine that Gibson had many many boxes of celluloid pickguards and clamps when this mandolin was made. Why an instrument should have a "one off" wooden pickguard with a completely different clamp makes no sense. I have a Hilo 650 Hawaiian guitar from about 1930 and it has a very fancy pickguard which I believe to be more or less contemporary but due to its construction, I reckon it to be made in Czechoslovakia. I have never seen a photo of another Hilo with a pickguard- so I assume it to be an after market addition by its first or an early owner. This pickguard is almost certainly a replacement for the usual reasons that the original did not last- or was simply removed and then replaced by a later owner.