wear on Monroe's mandolin

[jus]

Looking at a picture of Monroe's F5 prior to the poker incident and notice the wear on the top. I'm particularly interested in the patch between the E strings and the bottom f hole, what created that? fingers , pick ?

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/perl/show_image.pl?2603

(by the way this is part of a great series of images)

Can somebody describe Mr Monroe's pick technique in relation to this , I'm sure this has been described in great detail more than once , but I'd love to know...

I also notice that the bridge was kind of set on a slant , lower on the bass side and higher on the treble, I guess this was for intonation

[Greenmando]

Bill's approach to picking was to "beat it like a mule"!

That patch is from years of picking without a pickguard.

Theres been a few threads on his mando in the past few days/weeks. They would have a bunch of info for you.

[GTison]

1. If you are talking about that dark patch by the upper "round hole" of the treble "f" hole, THEN I've always wondered what that dark patch is.

2. Looking at this picture and some of the others that the treble side thumbwheel appears Larger than the bass side thumbwheel. Also, they both are quite large. I wonder what year those came from?

3. It also appears in the side shot 'prefirepoker' that the bridge base has been sanded down Quite Thin on the feet and all the way across, but that the saddle is about normal height. (I think I've heard Mr. Derrington say that the neck angle was shallow at this time and was corrected in the restoration) Did the bridge base touch all the way across the top?

[delsbrother]

1. #If you are talking about that dark patch by the upper "round hole" of the treble "f" hole, #THEN I've always wondered what that dark patch is. #
Isn't that the original finish?

[GTison]

It kinda looks like it but why would it be surounded by wear marks, it seems odd.

[Rob Griffin]

I've always wondered about the size of the thumbwheels on Mr. Monroe's Loar also. They look really large, although I hadn't noticed that the treble side wheel looks even larger but bowfinger might be right about that. Anyway, the thumbwheels are much larger than what the loar bridge reproduction builders use. I had heard that large thumbwheels could hurt the tone and volume of a mandolin. Mr. Monroe's mandolin was certainly not lacking either. Hopefully the Loar experts can shed some light on this small detail.

Rob

[Coy Wylie]

Obviously that bridge was destroyed in the *attack* because when you look at the "after" picture the wheels are the normal size.

[Darryl Wolfe]

This photo explains the wear. Mon drug his fingers on the top. I believe it was Randy Wood that placed epoxy/rosewood filler in the worn spot in the very early 70's...and redid it a few times. In the late 60's the top was almost (or actually was) worn thru.

The bridge on Mons mandolin in the 50's and 60's was a rosewood Gibson "50's" bridge. It was subsequenly replaced with another Gibson bridge in the late 70's or early 80's, I believe when the peghead was redone. It was replaced again by Charlie with an F5L bridge when the "poker" incident repair was performed

[f5loar]

I suspect the 50's bridge came about when it was sent back for repairs in the early 50's. The old Loar bridge was proabaly worn out from changing strings so often. The bigger wheels did allow him to adjust height easier which he did a lot as the neck pulled up. Randy Wood tells the story of how he was not allowed to reangle the neck so kept putting shims at the heel as it pulled up. Hey I've got that 3 piece gray suit. Wish I had the mandolin to go with it!

[AlanN]

So, how did the wear on the face of the scroll happen? Same with Grisman's old fern. Always wondered about that. Wild pick swings?

[earthsave]

I would say from the leather strap sliding back and forth across it.

[evanreilly]

Bill apparently carried the broken peghead scroll around for years, but never quite got around to having it re-attached.

[Charlie Derrington]

Darryl,

I've got that hat. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

BTW, I didn't see any evidence of any filler being used in the worn spot. (it was paper thin by the time I had it in my hands and you could easily see light through it.) I doubled the area with a thin piece of spruce, underneath, to keep him from wearing through. And, that dark spot is indeed a bit of original finish that, oddly, was left where it was.

Charlie

[Darryl Wolfe]

Thanks for the info Charlie..good to hear from you

[glauber]

You guys should get together and play Bill Monroe dressup. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[OdnamNool]

Hmmmmm.... Na2SO410H20... Hmmmmm.... a laxative? Whoopsidaisy! Don't mind me! Just ramblin' here... like I do sometimes.... (Back to the topic at hand...) http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[f5loar]

Hey Charlie is that a Charlie One Horse hat or a Stetson?
I don't see the horseshoe on it.