[The_buffalo]

I just found out that the "F" in F-style mandolins refers to Florentine, but I have not been able to find out what the "A" refers to. Does anybody know?

[rasav]

Do you know how much valueable work time I'm going to waste today looking for the answer to that question?

[zooloo]

Artist

[dadfad]

It's because in the late 1800's Gibson, who was the premier mandolin manufacturer of that time (Gibson started out as a mandolin company) designed what it designated its A-model (oval-shaped flat-back) as opposed to its newer F-model, which Lloyd Loar later refined Gibson's older F-design around 1920 and his F-5 went into production a year or two later. The F did designate the style as being Florentine (an F is/was also affixed to several Gibson guitar designs to designate Florentine-cutaway, for example I have an ES175-F). And so to distinguish between the two basic design differences Gibson continued to use A for its original oval-shaped flat-back as opposed to F. For example you could buy the A-5 or the F-5, A-9 or F-9, etc. Much in the same way that the letter J was affixed to some of it's later jumbo model guitars as opposed to the earlier smaller L-styles (the L stood for Lloyd Loar designed, which were archtops for the most part). The A-style is sometimes referred to as an 0-style as well, the 0 referring to it's oval-shaped body. That shape (A or 0) is broken down further into flat-back or bowl-back models by different makers. It has been said the A originally stood for Artist, but there's no documentation for that in any Gibson catalogues, records or archives. Since then several other manufacturers have used an A to refer to an "Artist series" mandolin (although a few times an "Artist model" name was also even used to refer to one of their scrolled (Florentine-shaped) instruments.)

Before the turn of the century mandolins had been previously styled in what is often called the "Neopolitan" style. Flat-topped and bowl-backed. Gibson, around the turn of the century, applied "violin technology" to the design of some of its mandolins and created a more arch-topped flatter-backed oval-shaped model, the A. And shortly there after the F. The number after the letter generally refer to its decoration level, although certain design changes occurred in some as well.

There's often some nebulous, sometimes even conflicting, information about Gibson's mandolins (and Gibson's guitars too). Hopefully mine is fairly accurate. I'm not a big mando-guy but I know a few guys really into all the mando history and lore (Loar? ), including Gibson Company's own historian Walt Carter, and heard a bit of stuff from their conversations.

[kkatarn327]

dadfad to the rescue once again