Gibson's F5 is the most copied mandolin design.
Each mandolin is filled with its own voice, and thus, its own kind of inspiration. Every instrument, with its distinctive tone and feel, will cause a songwriter to write a different kind of song, a soloist to take a different kind of solo and a listener to feel a certain kind of emotion. Instrumentation should not be based upon which mandolin is superior, but upon which is best for the song and best translates the intended emotion.
Origins
In the late 1890s, Orville Gibson re-imagined the round-back, Neapolitan mandolin. His teardrop-shaped mandolin, patented in 1898, had a flatter, carved back, rather than a back composed of strips of wood. His soundboard was arched like a violin, as opposed to a flat or canted table. His F-style mandolin evolved in the early 1900s with a decorative scroll on the bass side and points projecting off the body. The numbered nomenclature (1, 2, 3 and 4), originally referred to levels of ornamentation, with 4 having the most ornamentation. In the early 1920s, under the eye of craftsman Lloyd Loar, Gibson introduced a mandolin with several structural differences -- the F5.
The Fretboard
The F4 fretboard joins the body at the 12th fret, and beyond that point where the fretboard overlaps the top of the body of the instrument, the F4 has 10 frets. The F5 joins at the 15th fret and has 12 frets extending over the body. The fretboards also sit differently on the instrument. The fretboard of the F4 is attached directly to the soundboard, while the F5's fretboard hovers above the soundboard on a fretboard extender. This means the F5 provides easier access to higher finger positions.
The Soundboard
The area of the soundboard underneath the F4's fretboard is much thicker than that of the F5, whose soundboard is thin under its floating fretboard. The thick area of the F4's fretboard doesn't participate in the instrument's resonance as well as the thinner F5. Another, and the most obvious, difference is that the soundboards have differently shaped sound holes. The F4 has one oval sound hole, and the F5 has, just like a violin, two F-shaped soundholes. The F5 also has a greater soundboard gradation (from thicker in the center to thinner at the edges) than the F4.
The Sound
F5 mandolins tend to produce a greater volume. This has to do with the greater gradation and the F-shaped sound holes that result in a more flexible soundboard and also with the increased resonating area. The F5 also has two longitudinal tone bars on the underside of the soundboard that distribute the energy of the strings more evenly than the single horizontal brace under the F4's soundboard. The F4, obviously, does not produce as much volume. It has a more mellow, bassy and warm sound compared to the F5.
Tags: different kind, like violin, sound holes, upon which
