Restoration

 

Gibson F5 mandolin #71628

Signed by Lloyd Loar December 20, 1922

Repair issues

  • Original neck & fingerboard had been replaced with a neck of non-original specs
    Original neck was in the case with the instrument but in poor structural condition. At some point it had been shaved down and the headstock broken from the neck. It had been re-glued with epoxy and brass plates and steel screws inserted in an attempt to fix it to the neck, unsuccessfully.  The truss rod was broken off at the adjuster nut and the truss rod pocket filled with epoxy.

  • The whole instrument had previously been re-finished several times in the past (blonde pic), and at the time of the restoration had non-original stain & varnish (re-finished with nitrocellulose lacquer/sprayed sunburst)

  • Soundboard, bindings and headstock inlays sanded too thin

  • Scroll crest line of top sanded flat

  • Non-original tailpiece and missing pickguard (gold plated Waverly tuners original to late 20's re-fit)

Repair job

  • Make new neck, including inlays, to original circa 1929 specs (as when owned by Pee Wee Lambert)

  • Make new fingerboard to original 1922 specs

  • Graft entire inside surface of soundboard with red spruce. Graduate with new tonebars

  • Wedge-up top scroll area to re-carve and define scroll crest line

  • New top binding, hand water stain and varnish finish

  • Make new engraved tailpiece cover & pickguard (w/patent stamp)

  • New bridge

Repair completed  May 2007

Notes
Affectionately known as "Pee Wee", this mandolin was owned by Darrelll "Pee Wee" Lambert who played mandolin and sang high harmony with the Stanley Brother for about six years in the late 40's-early 50's,  and can be heard on many of their recordings from that period.. eg, Lonesome River and Angel Band. 
At some time in the late 1920s the mandolin must have been sent back to the factory for repair to a damaged neck as it had been reto-fitted with a characteristic late 20s (circa 1928) headstock veneer & inlay (fern with uncommon horizontal "The Gibson").  When I was asked to do the restoration work, it was requested by the owner that the headstock should revert back to the late 20's inlay style as when Pee Wee owned it and not back to the original 1922 inlay pattern of a slanted logo and flowerpot inlay.