Gryphon Mandolin
Yikes! Has this one become a vintage instrument?
Yeah, it creeps me out to think that it's been thirty-five years since I made this mandolin. A few years ago, the celluloid fingerrest started to decompose and crumble like so many old ones I've seen. I suppose we're getting old together. . .
Check out the peghead logo. This first Gryphon logo was drawn by our old friend, Rick Shubb, of Shubb Capo fame.
I don't have a lot of "vintage information" to give you about this one, except to say it is an early example of my work. The back and sides are maple I got from a violin wood supplier, the same source I used for the spruce top. The peghead veneer is a cutoff from a Brazilian rosewood guitar back, and the inlay on the fingerboard is my own design, loosely based on an early Bacon Professional banjo.
I traced the body outline from the treble side of my Gibson F-4, and doubled it over to form the bass side. The f-holes are copied from a 1960s F-5. The top and back are quite thin, tapering from about 1/8" in the center, to 3/32" at the edges. The top braces are about twice as heavy as the Loar era F-5s, but that's really not so heavy, considering the thin top. The mandolin has been under tension continuously since I built it, and the top shows not the slightest sign of sinking, so I'd say it's pretty stable.
The bridge has an ebony top and a hollow maple base.
Click here for more on this very light bridge.
