1910s Gibson A-1 Carved-Top Mandolin

This is one of Mike Brown's instruments -- a gig-worthy mandolin in rough and ready shape. It appears to be a Gibson A-1 and he said it was a "barn find" and that it was "covered in an inch of pigeon crap so you couldn't even really tell what it was."

A friend/luthier of his did some work on it in the past and both replaced or repaired bracing for the top and also fit an entirely new (flat, figured-maple) back to it. It also got a refret and an adjustable bridge installed at the same time.

Mike's a lefty player, though, so while it was here for work I made a new lefty-compensated saddle for it, cleated and sealed a crack, and set it all up. Its tone is actually really impressive with a lot of pop and punch but still with an overall "woody" Gibson sound.

He's been playing a '30s Kalamazoo KM-11 for a long time (not the one in that link but one that's similar) but we put a K&K Twin Spot pickup in this A-1 so it could be taken out to gigs as well. The icing on the cake for that use is that it's been entirely refinished and wonkified, so it's a low-stress instrument to run for shows.