1920s Gibson MB-4 Trap Door Banjo-Mandolin

This is a customer's gorgeous old MB-4 and it arrived in pretty good shape but needed a bit of surgery to make it play correctly. Nice features include a one-piece "bracket band," coordinator rod (combined with a dowel) construction through the rim, an original celluloid/ivoroid pickguard, "trap door"-style resonator on the rear, and a fancy headstock shape with upgraded trim in the binding and inlay throughout. It's got a pearl nut, too!

Work should have just been some minor adjustments to the rim/neck joint, a fret level/dress, setup, and a new bridge -- but to that was also added the conundrum of a fretboard extension that ski-jumped dramatically past the neck joint. This was due to a spring-steel "support" tab that was installed in the extension to reinforce it. As the instrument aged, the wood dried-out and it must have pulled the (non-shrinkable) metal tang into an upbow with it.

To solve that, Manny and I broke the extension, adjusted the tab into a downslope, and then glued everything back together afterwards. There was then some cosmetic work to do along with the necessary work noted earlier. I've had to do this same process on a Gibson cello banjo which had exactly the same problem.

Post-repairs it's a quick player with a sturdy, secure feel about it and plenty of eye-candy to boot.