1911 Gibson A Carved-Top Mandolin (Lefty)

This poor old Gibson was brutalized over its lifetime. While the top isn't all cracked-up, the whole thing was refinished, the binding replaced with wood, and several generations of poor repair choices were made regarding a split heel, finish on the neck, a replacement fretboard... and the like.

It arrived with high action, a teeny-tiny low bridge, and a ski-jump which meant it fretted-out like mad past the 7th fret or so. It was just... a mess.

Now that it's back together again, it sounds excellent. It's dry, woody, choppy, and loud. It even plays nicer than your average all-original Gibson thanks to the new-ish, taller frets on the fretboard.

Repairs included: repairing a broken-up neck joint (it was ick), resetting the neck and repairing the damaged heel (reinforced, too), regluing the fretboard extension and touching-up the previous repair-damage in that area, a fret level/dress, side dots install, new bone nut, reglue to the ladder brace below the soundhole, fitting of new tuners at the headstock, cutting and fitting a new rosewood compensated bridge, various cleaning, seam repairs, and a setup. I mean... it got a lot.

Setup notes: it plays perfectly with hair-under 1/16" action at the 12th fret and a straight neck. Strings are GHS 36w-10 gauges. I wouldn't go any heavier on it, for sure. It had 40w-11 or similar when it came in.

Other notes: this has the normal 13 7/8" Gibson scale length but the nut has been thinned-down to 1 1/8" rather than 1 1/4" like most of these were at the time.