1980s F-hole mandolin

Yesterday Robert Boyett visited with two of my older mandolins.  One was my standard model of the 1980s, with Indian rosewood back and sides, a German spruce soundboard and an oval soundhole.  The other had maple back and sides, a carved back and a German spruce soundboard with f-holes.

This second one greatly surprised me.  I later built a small (Gibson size) mandolin with f-holes, but it was in my mind this was the first and only one.  However, there is no doubt I built this one.  All my design and build features are present, along with the address card type label of the time.

The f-holes are unusually large, and I now recall matching their combined area to that of the oval hole in my standard mandolin.  The soundboard is braced with tone bars running the length of the body rather than the X bracing on oval hole models.  The label is unfortunately undated, but I used this style until the late 1980s.

Deeper than our current mandolins, it sounded truly wonderful with a fat, rich sound.  Robert has many mandolins but said he always goes to this one.  Clearly well looked after by its three owners, it’s in virtually new condition.  Robert was thrilled with it, and rightly so.

Food for thought.