There are few fretted instruments more stately, elegant and majestic than the pre-1922 Gibson F-4. It was the top of the line mandolin in its time and has just about every fancy appointment that the Gibson Company could utilize to complete its sumptuous countenance. The most notable of these features is the large body scroll on the upper bass bout and the two large body points on the treble side. (“It’s definitely a male,” says the biologist, “trying to attract a mate.”) The color of this example is a deeper more rubicund, being that the tawny deep red shading approaches Cremona Brown Sunburst, especially on the sides and figured maple back. Keep in mind that Lloyd Loar was, indeed, in the building in 1921. He was hired back in 1918 and worked there until late 1924 – maybe he suggested this color. You never know. We tend to associate Cremona Brown with Mr. Loar. Verily, the headstock, too, shares the large point and twin scrolls motif and is inlaid “The Gibson” in flowing prewar script mother of pearl. Below the logo, and we mean right below the logo – there’s not much space in between – is the famous 3 ½” long “double flower pot” (or “urn while you learn”) in multi-colored pearl that stands above us all to represent Capitalism, an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth (with thanks to Dictionary.com).
Nearly all surfaces are bound or capped in grained ivoroid including the shapely headstock, the ebony fingerboard with its 19 full frets and 5 partial ones that end in a peninsula that floats above the bound oval soundhole, the top and the back. Said fingerboard is inlaid with 6 large mother of pearl dotmarkers in 5 fret positions. The bridge is a two-piece adjustable with twin nickel-plated lifters, but this bridge does not bear the “Pat. 1921” pressure stamp, probably because the mandolin was made in 1921 and it may not have been granted yet. We believe the bridge original. The tailpiece is original and so is its slide-on nickel-plated cover that’s etched “The Gibson” with a floral pattern at the scalloped upper end. The elevated tortoise-shell colored celluloid pickguard has its “Patented Mar. 30., ‘09” stamp and the adjustable side clamp has its “Pat. July 4, 1911” stamp; the tuners are four-on-a-filigreed plate, original with grained ivoroid buttons of its time.
This mandolin shows normal signs of playing and use including scratches, nicks, scuffs, scrapes and dings overall. There is a deep finish check off the bottom end of the bass side tuners and just a hint of what might be a small incipient seam visible on the treble side above where the top binding terminates, adjacent to the 12th fret on the fingerboard. This F-4 missed having an adjustable truss rod by only months – Gibson introduced that feature during this very year, 1921. It has a dark sunburst finish on its top, back and sides, and a soundhole rosette made up of a 7 rings of alternating black and crème lines with celluloid at the center of the oval.
The playing action is both low and comfortable in every fret position; the frets have been cleaned and polished. The frets are a tiny bit low, no doubt from having received several levellings over 91 years, but this beautiful instrument presents no resistance to the fingers; it plays with inviting alacrity. We present to you a Gibson F-4 from just the right period, retaining all of the allure and refinement of the best period of mandolin history and sounding welcomingly warm, clean and bright -- just the way a player of popular music of the last quarter of the 19th and first quarter of the 20th century would want it to sound.