Sam Bush Fern '34 LE

[Mario D'Orrico]

Hi this is my new Gibson Sam Bush Fern '34 Limited Edition arrived last thursday. It is a great mandolin with incredible chop! It's a "Hoss"!!!

I like to know other owners of this fantastic mandolin. Please if there is anyone that has this mandolin feel free to use this thread to discuss about this.

It's Pilot #11.

[Larry S Sherman]

Congrats...nice looking mandolin. I love the Sam Bush models.

Video:



Larry

[AlanN]

Look like a dandy mandolin. How is the neck? Is it beefy?

[Mario D'Orrico]

Look like a dandy mandolin. How is the neck? Is it beefy?

The neck is wider than a standard F5-L Fern, the fingerboard is radiused with the large fret wire as Sam likes.

[mtucker]

That's one Badd looking little axe!! Love the blocks, flamey back and wide grain spruce top. Bet it sounds good...!

[Mike Bunting]

Who is Badd? Is he a builder?

[Ancient]

Looking at the picture of the top it looks like the F holes are off. One is closer to the edge than the other one. It looks like the right one is closer to the edge than the left one.

[sunburst]

Yes, I believe so. The strings also look to be off center in the bridge to help center the bridge between the F-holes. These things happen...

[grassrootphilosopher]

Mario,
it´s nice to see a Sam Bush video. How about you post a video (or MP3) of yourself playing your mando? I´d appreciate it.

[Scotti Adams]

Isnt this basically a ramped up SB Model? That F hole issue would drive me nuts. Its definently there.

[AlanN]

So it is, did not notice that F hole issue. QC slipped.

[sachmo63]

How can QC slip on a $10,000 instrument.........................?

Are you kidding me???? That doesn't say much for Gibson......

[jim simpson]

The photo in the middle at the top is taken from an angle not dead on. I believe the angle and the reflection are what's making the f-holes look off. Measurements would settles this.

[Mario D'Orrico]

The photo in the middle at the top is taken from an angle not dead on. I believe the angle and the reflection are what's making the f-holes look off. Measurements would settles this.

It can be strange, but I see all pictures on the web about this mandolin and all show this particular f-holes. I think this is a special feature, because if is a little mistake of building, it's impossible that all instruments have the same mistake.
Look at this video and please stop at 1:06 and see the mandolin... there is this feature on the mandolin that FQM has reviewed in this video also.
There is in the pictures on the gibson original web site.



I will ask to Dave Harvey why there is this feature.

[Tom Sanderson]

"The photo in the middle at the top is taken from an angle not dead on. I believe the angle and the reflection are what's making the f-holes look off. Measurements would settles this. "



I agree

[sunburst]

...if is a little mistake of building, it's impossible that all instruments have the same mistake...

Gibson is a production shop. Production processes can and and do repeat "mistakes" regularly. Off-center F-holes and center seams are common in mandolins in general, particularly F5 mandolins, from many makers. It often shows up because the bridge ends up sitting closer to one F-hole than the other, but someone setting up the mandolin can cut the string notches in the bridge off-center to make the bridge sit closer to the center between the f-holes and minimize the visual effect, and it looks like that was done here.

The strings are centered in the fingerboard and apparently the mandolin plays and sounds fine. Those are the important things, the position of the f-holes and/or center seam are purely cosmetic. it's no big deal.

The photo at the lower right, not the center one in first post, is the one that shows the effect. Here's a crop of that picture where I've marked (with yellow) the distance from each f-hole to the binding and the center of the bridge top.

[Ancient]

For what that mandolin costs,it should be better than that.

[barry]

Had that instrument been delivered to me, I would return it. Whether or not the misalignment of the F-holes makes a sonic difference, it would bother me every time I picked it up.

[Chris Biorkman]

You should return it. IIRC, there was another guy on here who bought and returned two of these due to workmanship issues before he finally got a keeper. Unacceptable for a $12,000 mandolin.

[Kevin Briggs]

Marion

Congratulations on your new axe. I'll bet that thing is loud and with great tone.

Are you able to post any sound clips? A video would be awesome too.

[woodwizard]

Yes! Congrats on your new axe. A beautiful instrument for sure! I'm sure you will really enjoy that wonderful Gibson tone and get years of enjoyment. Wish I had one.

[Mario D'Orrico]

Hi, is there anybody owner of this model? I'd like know....

[f5loar]

Is it the photo or are those top two tuner shafts really long? I thought Gibson was getting tuners with shorter shafts to look better. Those long shafts won't fit in some modern cases.

[Big Joe]

I have only seen one of these in person and the F holes seemed correct on that one. However, he did say he returned two of them because of that issue. The tuners are probably the Gibson Grovers, which do have a bit longer shaft than many of the other tuners. They are, however, an excellent tuner and I like them as much as the Waverly's. The 34 Bush that came into our shop was her for other issues but was a great mandolin and sounded incredible as one would hope and expect. Again, I have not seen the suspect mandolins personally so I cannot say for sure there was a problem but I had heard it was an issue from a couple sources. I don't know if it was intentional (???) or just happended. I doubt it hurts the tone or playability. Thank you.

[Mario D'Orrico]

Is it the photo or are those top two tuner shafts really long? I thought Gibson was getting tuners with shorter shafts to look better. Those long shafts won't fit in some modern cases.

Yes the tuner are Gibson Groves with mother of pearl button. These are very excellent tuner. I have used this mandolin in two live concert and I have to tune once at the start of the live concert and the tune remain the same to the entire concert. Very good.