The F-5 Mandolins

The rebirth of a musical legend

Sierra Hull with her signature Gibson Custom F-5G mandolin

Modern Virtuoso

Award-winning singer-songwriter and mandolin star Sierra Hull honored with two Gibson signature models

The 1923 F-5 Master Model Reissue—a meticulous clone of the most legendary mandolin model of all time—and the F-5G, a reimagined F-5, fine-tuned to the needs of modern players.

Using 3D scans, scientific analysis, and Lloyd Loar’s original production notes, we’ve recreated the mandolin model that defined the sound of bluegrass and changed the course of music history.

Game-changing features of the F-5 included the shift from a central soundhole to f-holes, a longer neck, which repositioned the bridge further away from the tailpiece, redesigned bracing, and the fingerboard extension raised off the top so it could no longer dampen vibrations. Loar’s F-5 Master Model mandolin remains the high-water mark for mandolin tone more than 100 years after its inception.

Meet the mandolins

1923 F-5 Master Model Reissue

A meticulous clone of the most legendary mandolin model of all time.

  • 2-piece Quarter Sawn Figured Red Maple Body & Back
  • Red Spruce Top
  • Figured Red Maple Neck
  • Ebony Fingerboard
  • Mother of Pearl Dot Inlays
  • Ebony Bridge; Patent Date Stamped
  • Silver-plated Tailpiece Cover, Engraved with “The Gibson”
  • Waverly Tuners

$19,999
$19,999 $19,999
Shop now
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F-5G Mandolin

A reimagined F-5 fine-tuned to the needs of modern players.

  • 2-piece Quarter Sawn Figured Red Maple Body & Sides
  • Carved Sitka Spruce Top
  • Figured Red Maple Neck
  • Ebony Fingerboard
  • Mother of Pearl Inlays
  • Ebony Bridge
  • Nickel-plated Tailpiece Cover, Engraved with “Gibson”
  • Grover Tuners

$5,999
$5,999 $5,999
Shop now
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A rich history

Each newly made 1923 F-5 Master Model Reissue crafted by Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee, will come with a Certificate of Authenticity bearing a portrait of Lloyd Loar, the Master Luthier who worked for Gibson for only five years, but whose innovations in that time paved the way for so much that followed.

Orville Gibson

Company founder Orville Gibson’s earliest known instrument was a 10-string mandolin-guitar, which bears the date 1894. He applied his revolutionary technique of carving the top and back when crafting both mandolins and guitars. He died in 1918, not long before Loar pioneered the F-5.

Game-changing

Billed as “The ‘Strad’ of Mandolins,” a reference to the world-famous Stradivarius violin, the F-5 was sold for $250 in 1923. Game-changing features of the F-5 included the shift from a central soundhole to f-holes, a longer neck that repositioned the bridge further away from the tailpiece, redesigned bracing, and the fingerboard extension raised off the top so it could no longer dampen vibrations.

Lloyd Loar

Lloyd Loar was the director of the Gibsonians, a company band that toured the country promoting Gibson stringed instruments. Loar is pictured here on the far left, holding an F-5, with Dorothy Crane, the singer Fisher Shipp (Loar’s first wife), James H. Johnstone, Nell VerCies, and Lucille Campbell.

A rich history
Orville Gibson
Game-changing
Lloyd Loar

Each newly made 1923 F-5 Master Model Reissue crafted by Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee, will come with a Certificate of Authenticity bearing a portrait of Lloyd Loar, the Master Luthier who worked for Gibson for only five years, but whose innovations in that time paved the way for so much that followed.

Company founder Orville Gibson’s earliest known instrument was a 10-string mandolin-guitar, which bears the date 1894. He applied his revolutionary technique of carving the top and back when crafting both mandolins and guitars. He died in 1918, not long before Loar pioneered the F-5.

Billed as “The ‘Strad’ of Mandolins,” a reference to the world-famous Stradivarius violin, the F-5 was sold for $250 in 1923. Game-changing features of the F-5 included the shift from a central soundhole to f-holes, a longer neck that repositioned the bridge further away from the tailpiece, redesigned bracing, and the fingerboard extension raised off the top so it could no longer dampen vibrations.

Lloyd Loar was the director of the Gibsonians, a company band that toured the country promoting Gibson stringed instruments. Loar is pictured here on the far left, holding an F-5, with Dorothy Crane, the singer Fisher Shipp (Loar’s first wife), James H. Johnstone, Nell VerCies, and Lucille Campbell.

Legendary tone

Hear the new 1923 F-5 Master Model Reissue in the supremely talented hands of GRAMMY®-nominated bluegrass musician Sierra Hull alongside Gibson Custom Master Luthier and mandolin virtuoso David Harvey, and a Lloyd Loar-signed 1923 original.

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