1911 Gibson Style O Artist Octave Mandolin - video

This conversion involved crafting a new neck with a similar soft V profile but shorter scale (22 ½ “ scale) and more narrow width (1 ½” at the nut) than the original guitar neck. The fleur-de-lis inlay on the headstock is similar to the original guitar neck headstock inlay, and the fretboard inlays were copied from an old Gibson F2 artist mandolin. A new inlayed bridge was made, and the instrument was fitted with a fancy Orrico silver plated tailpiece. Original Style O guitars tend to be rather thickly carved so the top and back were thinned slightly as well (regraduated with the typical “thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges” profile of a modern archtop instrument) before the instrument was finished in what may have been its original colors. When I bought the body, it was already stripped of finish; however, the black and brown color scheme is common on older Style O guitars with the fleur-de-lis headstock. 16 1/8” lower bout. Original label in good shape.  

The Style O shares the same patent as Gibson's harp guitar where it is described as a modified form of the instrument.  Like Gibson harp guitars, this early Style O body also has wooden internal reinforcement arms in addition to the top bracing.  However, the arms in this instrument are comparatively thin, flat (1/1/2" wide x 1/8" thick) pieces of wood compared to the heavy internal wooden arms found in harp guitars.  One arm runs from the lower rim to the top of the scroll while the other arm runs from the lower rim to the cutaway.  The arms are connected to the waist of the instrument on both sides by small wooden blocks as seen in the x-ray image.   

Gorgeous instrument. Great setup and playability.   Comes with a really nice custom made Cedar Creek hardshell case.   Conversion was done 13 years ago, and the instrument has very little play wear. Looks almost new.  Everyone seems to like the way this instrument looks, plays and sounds.

Currently set up with the 4th through 1st chrome steel flatwound strings from a Thomastik Liuto Set Number 185 (this set has five pairs of strings, CGDAE, and I didn’t use the low pair of C strings). I have also used regular phosphor bronze strings on it (.048W, .033W, .023W and a plain steel .012).