The last two years of Lloyd Loar’s tenure at Gibson saw a change in leadership that, possibly, was responsible for his departure from the company. The new boss, Harry Ferris, called for a number of things, among which was the reduction in production of the famed F5, and a return to manufacturing of their much more affordable A models, including this A-1 from 1926.

Post Loar A’s featured a number of upgrades from their teens compatriots, most notably the re-graduation of the top to create a much warmer, more open sound. This particular A-1 does not feature the narrowed nut of 1 1/16, (it in fact has quite a wide nut at 1 5/32!) but does feature the longer 13 15/16 scale length that Loar introduced.

The spruce top features some heavy wear under the strings, interestingly, that may be residue from polish or something similar from a center seam split repair sometime in the distant past. There’s also wear on the upper end where you’d expect pick wear to be, as well as some marks on the heastock. “The Gibson”, which was silkscreened at this point, has mostly worn away, as is pretty common.

The birch back features some pretty nice flaming. This mandolin has a nice, open, round (for lack of a better word) sound.

The bridge is a replacment, the rest of the hardware is original. Missing a pickguard, though the pin remains in the neck.

Comes with a hard case.