They've barely changes since, and in fact the trend is back toward as close as possible to the original production model!Ī carved top, f-hole mandolin is a production shape adapted from Orville Gibson's early efforts, with F-holes (sort of borrowed from violins) simply added. F-hole carved top mandolins pretty much burst forth with the F5 design and went into production immediately. When designs go into production (something that violins didn't do in the centuries the design was developing) changes don't come easily. Carved top mandolins more or less burst forth in the designs of Orville Gibson and they went into production shortly after. Violin design 'evolved' over centuries to become what it is now. Only so much function can be attributed to the shape and position of the f-holes in a violin top even though they are a contributing factor to the top's function, and very little if any of that transfers to mandolins. I used to think about the difference in how the f-holes of a violin and the f-holes of mandolins function as a design feature and as a structural feature, and I have read old articles about the function of f-holes in violins and thought about applying some of that to mandolins, but what I've (so far) concluded is something like this: There's a lot of that sort of thing in the F-hole carved top mandolin design.

F hole design on guitar