Hypothetical Loar Scenario [Archive]

Zed

Mar-28-2004, 12:31pm

I was just thinking about this myself and thought i'd throw it out at ya'll and see what comes of it.

Let's say you've come into possesion of a Loar. How you got it doesn't matter other than you paid little or nothing for it. The simple question is, now what do you do with it? Are you a player? Would you keep it and actually pack it around to gigs and play it? Would you turn it over for a huge profit and buy 5 other killer mandos or new studio gear? Would you keep it as an investment and not play it? I'm just curious what you think you'd do in this circumstance. I'm not sure about my own answer... it'd be a tough call for sure.

jim simpson

Mar-28-2004, 12:36pm

Zeek,
I would probably keep it to play. I would not make a big deal about it's lineage as to not raise envy. I guess I would start to get paranoid about it getting stolen.
Jim

Brookside

Mar-28-2004, 12:41pm

I don't play. #So I would arrange for mandolin lessons from a teacher and just show up with it. #I'd say, "will this do for starters?" #

I would not sell it. #I would study it from an amateur builders perspective, play it, and appreciate it. #I would consider loaning/renting it to reputable players or builders for brief periods of time.

Jim makes a good point. I'd have a nice looking copy with a GPS tracking device laying around my house with the real one in a hidden safe when not in use.

John Flynn

Mar-28-2004, 12:44pm

I would play it for a few weeks for fun, probably record myself playiing it and then definitely sell it. There was one that went for $108,000 discussed on the board recently. For that amount of money, I could buy every instrument I ever dreamed of and have enough left over to get my kids the rest of the way through college and take the vacation of our dreams with my wife.

Besides, I am not a subscriber to the "Loar is the ultimate mandolin" theory. Even if I won the lottery and could easily afford a Loar, I wouldn't be interested in buying one. Their mystique has priced them way beyond rationality.

Keith Newell

Mar-28-2004, 12:49pm

Just think of the shop equipment it could buy.

Keith
http://www.newellmandolins.com

elenbrandt

Mar-28-2004, 2:38pm

Just think of the Brentrups it could buy.... plus a car and part of a house.....

love, the phantom Brentrup 'ho http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

evanreilly

Mar-28-2004, 3:20pm

Well...
Howcum most all of the 'Big Names' in builders are copying the Loar mandolins???
They ain't making them anymore, but there are some extremely good repros being made, and that includes Gibson's offerings.

PCypert

Mar-28-2004, 3:43pm

I've always said I would sell it for enough to pay off my wife and I's student loans and get myself a custom jobbie from someone. The one condition of sale would be that it goes to a player. Not someone who would lock it up. With a few exceptions people build instruments to be played. Anywone ever see that Northern Exposure that dealt with violins and the same issue? Also kind of like Toy Story 2 http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif . But I would sell to someone on the board who would not turn around a sell it. But who would play it into the ground.
Paul

THP

Mar-28-2004, 3:56pm

Hey Zeek
Just posted this on co-mando too

Keep it and play it everyday at every gig, at every jam,
practice..everywhere. Never put it down..and when my time came that i didnt
play anymore (golden years)..hand it off to another player that swore to do
the same..play play play.
pretty simple.

Anthony
www.hickoryproject.com

Bobbie Dier

Mar-28-2004, 5:21pm

Play it! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif And try to keep it away from that little yellow guy.

ronlane3

Mar-28-2004, 5:37pm

Play it everywhere.

Atlanta Mando Mike

Mar-28-2004, 5:48pm

First, It would depend on if it is a player. I have played loars that I just plain woudn't want. If it wasn't a good'en, I'd sell it and buy a Tucher, Smart, Gilchrist-A style , Hutto, Brock, Smith Creek, Randy Wood, Givens, Nugget A-style, Kimble 2-point, Old Wave C#, and the list goes on.

Walter Newton

Mar-28-2004, 9:35pm

I'd sell it ASAP, spend 5%-10% of what I sold it for on a GREAT new mando, and use the rest of the dough to take a couple of years off to travel the world.

Hondo

Mar-29-2004, 7:59am

I'd sell it, buy that Breedlove I've been lusting after, pay off the tractor and get a few more acres of the Texas Hill Country, plunk myself smack dab in the middle of it and play to my heart's content. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Mar-29-2004, 8:10am

I'd sell it........ & if a man is going to pay $100,000 he can lock it away or do whatever in the hell he wants with it......he paid for that priviledge.

mad dawg

Mar-29-2004, 8:34am

I would sell it, buy a sea foam green Rigel http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif, and then pocket the difference.

Tim Saxton

Mar-29-2004, 8:51am

I'd Sell it. Buy a Nugget, Gilchrist, and a Redwood/Mesquite/Ironwood Old Wave. Then i'd pay my car off buy and old Chevelle and invest the rest.

Tim Saxton http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif

Mar-29-2004, 8:54am

Hey Tim.......how about this?........LOL!

Mar-29-2004, 8:57am

Hey Tim, I notice there are gobs of older cars for sale up in the Northwest.......we need to team up!

Christine W

Mar-29-2004, 9:08am

Oh I would play it for a while and then sell it buy a great mando and pay off my mortgage so I could spend more time practicing and less "working". http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif oh and not think twice about it Freedom is everything!

JDARTGOD

Mar-29-2004, 9:17am

I think the Flatiron F-5 Special is all I'll ever need for my playing purposes. Translated......me with a Loar would be like hubcaps on a tractor.......An instrument of that caliber should be in the hands of a player who can make it sing like it should.

I'd sell it or lease it to some trusted pros.

duuuude

Mar-29-2004, 3:41pm

Well, let's see, first I'd get a pocketknife and carve out "The Gibson" from the headstock, sand down the back of the neck, put on a Newell tailpiece and a Brekke bridge, get it a McIntyre pickup, fix it up with a fossil ivory nut, string it up with some J74s, and then take it to every board member's home just so they could bitch at me.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

'Least that's about as likely to happen as me gettin' my mitts on a Loar.

John Flynn

Mar-29-2004, 5:28pm

Zed

Mar-29-2004, 5:30pm

As much as i believe in mandos being made to be played... Loars included... i find myself leaning towards the "sell it and buy 4 new other high-end hand builts" camp. I'd play it for a while... just to get acquainted with it... but honestly i'd be scared to death to take it out of the house. I worry enough as it is about my $1000 Rigel! I'd have a nervous flippin' breakdown packin around $100k anything http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

Zed

Mar-29-2004, 5:39pm

duuude:

LOL! I like your thinking on this. I would also get a tone-cage and an arm rest for it, have the fingerboard radiused with oversized frets and have the top autographed with a Sharpie by Sam Bush and Chris Thile. I'd take a picture and post it on the "Loar Picture of the Day" thread. I'd get so many flames I could shut my furnace down!
I have to believe that in the course of actually committing this atrocity you would be struck dead by a holy screaming bolt of Bluegrass Lightening, sent by The Mon Hisself, and then sent directly to the hottest section of Hell itself. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Mar-29-2004, 5:41pm

I would smash it into little pieces and have Charlie Derrington put it back together and sell it as a true Bill Monroe replica mandolin and make an extra 75,000 off of the deal http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Scotti Adams

Mar-29-2004, 5:49pm

I would play it for a year then sell it next year for $150,000...pocket the cash....and have the luxery of knowing when I needed another mando that price would be of no object...

Zed

Mar-29-2004, 6:36pm

Tim Saxton

Mar-29-2004, 8:00pm

Hey Tim, I notice there are gobs of older cars for sale up in the Northwest.......we need to team up!
Well Dale,

It so happens that I am in the Muscle Car, Hot Rod, and Street Rod business.

And I like your car real well.

Tim Saxton

Mar-29-2004, 8:08pm

Cool! You should see what I'm going after Friday..... 85 Dodge Ramcharger, black 4x4 with 13,000 original miles.....it's pristine, never spent a night outside or seen rain or snow!