Gibson Style A Snakehead Arch Top Mandolin (1925)
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Item # 8118
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Gibson Style A Snakehead Model Arch Top Mandolin (1925), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, serial # 79361, black lacquer finish, birch back and sides,spruce top, mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
This is a well-played but still great playing and sounding original Style A mandolin from mid-1925, made just after the end of the "Loar era" at Gibson. These "Snakeheads" are generally considered the best-sounding oval-hole "A" style mandolins ever made, and this one bears this out. While fairly heavily used, this 95-year-old mandolin is still a fine example of Gibson's craftsmanship just before the company's focus shifted to banjos and then guitars.
"Snakehead" instruments are named for their Lloyd Loar-designed peghead that angles inward towards the tip, a very practical feature inexplicably abandoned by Gibson after he left. They are revered for their unmatched tone and projection and have the other advanced features of the era including the adjustable truss rod neck, raised adjustable bridge, and very slim neck profile. The top on this "A" bears a striking black lacquer finish, bound in white celluloid with a thin inlaid wood sound hole ring. The tailpiece has the engraved "The Gibson" cover plate and the tuners were originally Waverly strips, features unchanged from the 1910s.
These distinctive "Loar era" A mandolins have become sought-after by discerning players. Lloyd Loar's tenure as acoustic engineer at Gibson has become so mythical that sometimes separating fact from fiction is difficult. Certainly the mandolin family instruments made during the period of his employment are the most perfectly realized in Gibson's history, and have become the template for most similar instruments since.
The mandolins of the early 1920s "Loar era" show the influence of a master player on both design and execution, although other Gibson employees (especially Thaddeus McHugh and Lewis A. Williams) actually engineered many of the technical improvements. Loar was primarily concerned with "voicing" the instruments; the Master Model Style 5 line was his greatest contribution with their violin-style f-hole tops, but all Gibson mandolins were refined and improved at the time. Even this most basic "A" model has sonic and playing improvements benefitting from "Master Loar's" input still evident today, nearly 100 years on.
Overall length is 25 3/4 in. (65.4 cm.), 10 1/4 in. (26 cm.) across at the widest point, and 1 11/16 in. (4.3 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 14 in. (356 mm.). Width of nut is 1 1/16 in. (27 mm.).
This is a fairly well-worn in snakehead that remains an excellent playing and sounding mandolin. The finish shows general wear overall with dings, dents, and scrapes but no large areas of loss. It remains the original black lacquer with a few small touched-up spots. The top has a pickwear spot below the sound hole that is the most noticeable. The lower top at the far treble side has some grain lines where the finish has flaked away a bit; these look like cracks at first glance but do not actually go into the wood.
There is a sealed crack on the upper rim running diagonally up from the neckblock. The back seam has been repaired solidly but visibly; it looks like more than once. There are some areas of the back/side seams that do not line up exactly but are also solidly sealed. A repair receipt in the case from 2014 makes note work on this area at least dating to that time.
The tailpiece and cover are original; the tuners and bridge are modern repros and the pickguard is long gone. The frets have been crowned down a bit and show light wear but the instrument is an excellent and comfortable player, a very friendly old Gibson worn in but not abused. It still resides on the original shaped HSC, fairly well-worn as well but still solid and serviceable with a new handle but otherwise original. Very Good + Condition.
This is a well-played but still great playing and sounding original Style A mandolin from mid-1925, made just after the end of the "Loar era" at Gibson. These "Snakeheads" are generally considered the best-sounding oval-hole "A" style mandolins ever made, and this one bears this out. While fairly heavily used, this 95-year-old mandolin is still a fine example of Gibson's craftsmanship just before the company's focus shifted to banjos and then guitars.
"Snakehead" instruments are named for their Lloyd Loar-designed peghead that angles inward towards the tip, a very practical feature inexplicably abandoned by Gibson after he left. They are revered for their unmatched tone and projection and have the other advanced features of the era including the adjustable truss rod neck, raised adjustable bridge, and very slim neck profile. The top on this "A" bears a striking black lacquer finish, bound in white celluloid with a thin inlaid wood sound hole ring. The tailpiece has the engraved "The Gibson" cover plate and the tuners were originally Waverly strips, features unchanged from the 1910s.
These distinctive "Loar era" A mandolins have become sought-after by discerning players. Lloyd Loar's tenure as acoustic engineer at Gibson has become so mythical that sometimes separating fact from fiction is difficult. Certainly the mandolin family instruments made during the period of his employment are the most perfectly realized in Gibson's history, and have become the template for most similar instruments since.
The mandolins of the early 1920s "Loar era" show the influence of a master player on both design and execution, although other Gibson employees (especially Thaddeus McHugh and Lewis A. Williams) actually engineered many of the technical improvements. Loar was primarily concerned with "voicing" the instruments; the Master Model Style 5 line was his greatest contribution with their violin-style f-hole tops, but all Gibson mandolins were refined and improved at the time. Even this most basic "A" model has sonic and playing improvements benefitting from "Master Loar's" input still evident today, nearly 100 years on.
Overall length is 25 3/4 in. (65.4 cm.), 10 1/4 in. (26 cm.) across at the widest point, and 1 11/16 in. (4.3 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 14 in. (356 mm.). Width of nut is 1 1/16 in. (27 mm.).
This is a fairly well-worn in snakehead that remains an excellent playing and sounding mandolin. The finish shows general wear overall with dings, dents, and scrapes but no large areas of loss. It remains the original black lacquer with a few small touched-up spots. The top has a pickwear spot below the sound hole that is the most noticeable. The lower top at the far treble side has some grain lines where the finish has flaked away a bit; these look like cracks at first glance but do not actually go into the wood.
There is a sealed crack on the upper rim running diagonally up from the neckblock. The back seam has been repaired solidly but visibly; it looks like more than once. There are some areas of the back/side seams that do not line up exactly but are also solidly sealed. A repair receipt in the case from 2014 makes note work on this area at least dating to that time.
The tailpiece and cover are original; the tuners and bridge are modern repros and the pickguard is long gone. The frets have been crowned down a bit and show light wear but the instrument is an excellent and comfortable player, a very friendly old Gibson worn in but not abused. It still resides on the original shaped HSC, fairly well-worn as well but still solid and serviceable with a new handle but otherwise original. Very Good + Condition.