It doesn't look like much

[Jack Roberts]

1958 A5.

[samuel]

nice... how does it sound?

[Km1000seth]

Thats pretty interesting, its an R stlye (two point) with an F4 headstock, but its an A.
Im not real common with old gibsons but are you sure thats an A?

[PCypert]

I'm jealous. I love those two point Gibsons.
Paul

[f5loar]

An F4 headstock? Don't think they made F4s in the 50's.
This is exactly like the F12 Headstock. I would think they could have come up with a better model style than A5 since
Gibson already had the 1923 A5 which was long neck with F holes on A body. This is known as the Jethro Burns style although he had a custom made one with an F5 neck in it.
Ricky Skaggs owned one of these when he was first with Ralph Stanley. It does have the F4/A4 sound.

[wah]

That looks alot like my '60 A5. It's been played some and could probably tell lots of good stories. She sounds great and plays beautifully. I currently have a set of TI "starks" on her and don't think I'll ever string her up with anything else.

One interesting note. Mine is that same color which I assumed was original rather than the classic cherryburst. I had Randy Allen put one of his tailpieces on it and under the old tailpiece was the bright red of the original cherryburst. At some point she got enough sun to fade out the red in the finish. I'll bet you'd find the same thing if you took off the tailpiece.

The Allen tailpiece seemed to make a little difference in tone. Nothing big, a little deeper, but noticeable. The gold TR2 looks great on it though. Somebody had replaced the original tuners with gold Klusons so I wanted to match the color of the tuners and body with the Allen tailpiece.

Wayne

[Jack Roberts]

A lot of people tell me it shouldn't sound as good as it does. #(The '20's F-5 crowd). #I play it with TI medium strings and it sounds sweet with lots of sustain. #The best way to describe it is that it sounds like a new Sam Bush F-5, but not as loud. #This is, of course, my own opinion, which I formed playing it side by side with all the high end mandolins they had in the case at a well known Palo Alto, California, music store.

The headstock is what they were then. #The former owner was a semi-professional "folky" who tried to take good care of it, but the frets are pretty worn, as is the fingerboard up around the 12th fret. #There are a couple of small creacks, and a poorly repaired break in the headstock. #But it was a player's instrument. I am proud to have a "jetro".#

Wah, you are right about the color fading. #It is clear when I take the tail piece off, and if you look at the right side of the picture, you can see the red is deeper than on the left side. #The pick guard (which was not original when I bought it) protected it a little.

Jack