Gibson K5 mandocello unicorns and fairy dust

[j. condino]

A good friend of mine shared a few photos of this sweet Loar era Gibson K5 mandocello that was in for a bit of restoration work.

I'd like to keep him, the instrument, and the owner undisclosed for their privacy. It is a rare bird, so I took a chance that folks around here would like to see it. There was a broken tonebar, so it got a new one under progress as you can see.

These are a good look into the subtle details of the inside that we don't get to see very often. Take a close look at the photos. Guess what? There are no unicorns or fairy dust inside; just well executed cabinet work with nice materials. This is basically the same body and interior you will find on period L5 guitars. While you are at it, take a look at that 1/4" gap in front of the neck joint filled with hot hide glue...

I've always enjoyed the basic K5 model as a mandocello. It seems to work much better than the K4 style and is infinitely more friendly to play. As interesting as the K4 may be from a design standpoint, it is not really an optimum way to approach a sonic result and I find them awkward when seated.

[Bill McCall]

I’m sure the fairy dust fell out when the back came. Unicorns, like kelpies, can escape through the F holes. Everybody know’s that

Thanks for the peek inside.

[HoGo]

Do you think you can replace the fairy dust with pink and blue chalk dust? :-)
I wonder how can one break a tonebar without any collateral damage to the top?
I would expect some glue collect in the very bottom of the neck joint especially in factory where they are not extremely careful about how much glue thay apply.

[MikeEdgerton]

I thought that was fairy dust on the blue tape. I feel so foolish.

[Jacob]

Butterflies and zebras, rainbows?

[William Smith]

Ok, we seen the inside, let's see the outside I'd love to have one of those but have settled with a 1921 K-4, I think the K-4 sounds great, and I think its comfy to play. But I also play guitar the same way while sitting-I mean the way I hold em, between the legs- Jack Lawrence style to those who don't know what I mean. I also love the big mandolin look of the K-4's.

[bpatrick]

What's up with the rectangular lighter shade around the f-holes? Formerly gauzed areas?

[Fretbear]

I wonder how can one break a tonebar without any collateral damage to the top?

There does seem to be some kind of repaired hole alongside the bar and an odd cross-grain crack across from the center of the treble F hole.

[BradKlein]

A handful of questions come to mind. But first, thanks for sharing these photos!

[j. condino]

I wonder how can one break a tonebar without any collateral damage to the top?

There was plenty of damage.

An expert repair utilizes the new tonebar with a slight offset over the existing crack to both structurally reinforce & and hide the damage. This is pretty common in the double bass & cello world. It is a rare month when I don't have one up on the workbench. When you get into pre 1875 era instruments there are often integral bassbars, where the bar is actually part of the same original board as the top and everything else is carved away. These are notorious for failures because the unified grain provides a stress relief point at the junction of the integral bar & top. The most common solution is to carve away the remains of the original and add a new bar, similar to this photo. The challenge is that it is very rare to find the graduations uniform all the way to the brace.

Don't overthink it. I can't remember anyone else showing off the guts to one of these mandocellos, so I wanted to share it with the community. This is incredibly clean and simple compared to the 1923 Harp guitar I've been working on that has a frisbee sized virzi inside!