Having been around and worked on a few of these, I knew which issues to avoid when buying. I didn't mind an instrument that needed work, in fact, I used that as a means to buy something affordable. But when you're shopping for an instrument that's 100+ years old... that kinda' presents a set of standards that aren't ordinarily in play.
With antique Gibson mandolins, especially these oval-hole ones, things you look for;
1. Top sinkage. The tops are carved, with only one transverse brace not far behind the soundhole. They tend to collapse under the bridge, or swell under the tailpiece as the instrument tries to 'fold'.
2. Seam separation. If the ribs have ever popped loose from the top or back, and weren't glued back quickly, they tended to deform. And sometimes they just expanded or contracted at different rates. Mine has a very slight seam separation in the lower bout, back-to-side... it's been glued. I may try to disassemble it and coax it back to shape. Or just leave it alone.
3. Waist spring. Especially common to the A-body mandolins for some reason... the sides 'spring' open at the body waist, right at the end of the neck block. My 1919 A-model was like this at some point in its past, but had been repaired, possibly under warranty. (for sure it went back to Kalamazoo at least once... and received a late-30's stenciled logo)
4. Neck relief. Gibson mandolins did not have adjustable truss-rods until 1922. They did have ebony neck reinforcement. Most of the time, that's plenty, but if there's too much relief such that you can't get the action right, you have to do it with compression fretting or in extreme cases, inlaying carbon fiber rods under the fingerboard.
5. I'm not sure why, but there's an awful lot of these with split tailblocks... my A-model included. It's not that hard to fix, but you have to catch it. It's often hidden under the tailpiece.
There's a handful of other issues about these that crop up, but that covers the high spots... and I've avoided the most serious of them on this F-2. It has a couple classic faults inherent to them. Note in the pictures the little cracks from the point at the lower bout, and the one in the swirl of the scroll... it's rare to find an F-body without these. Why? Well... I think it's because the wood block that's underneath the top at each of these locations is a different kind of wood, that expands and contracts at a very different rate and direction from the quartersawn spruce top. They aren't detrimental to the instrument. It would be better if they weren't there, but hey... whatchagonnado? Then there's the old headstock scroll repair. How did so many of these things get snapped off? Are there that many clumsy mandolinists? Me, I think they got broken in the case. Trust me, that case doesn't offer much protection... it wouldn't take much of a careless drop to bang that headstock hard enough to snap the little scroll off. At least it's easy to fix.
So I've got a little work to do... but it's mostly what I'd call maintenance work rather than repair. I'm really counting on Ward's critical eye here. He's an absolute master builder, as in, could (and has) scratch-built these things. When we get done it'll play like it's 1912 again.
