Everett Lilly's 3 Pointer

[John Kasley]

February issue of Bluegrass Unlimited landed in my mailbox yesterday afternoon. Everett Lilly is on the cover with his mandolin. Looks like an old Gibson blonde 3 point, but fretboard has modern block inlays, torch and wire inlay on headstock and no "The Gibson" inlay.
Anyone know anything about this instrument. The article has a picture of him from the mid '50s holding what seems to be the same instrument except the fretboard has dot inlays and the finger rest is in place.

[laddy jota]

I always thought it was an F2 but I am not sure. I talked to Everett a few years ago and I asked him if he still had it. He said no. He was playing a mandolin with "The Lilly" on the headstock made by someone in GA. I told him how much I enjoyed their early recordings and asked him how they made the steel-driving sound on John Henry. He was real friendly and let me play his "The Lilly" mandolin. I played the intro to "Are You Tired of Me Darling" and he grinned. He could really coax a lot of power out of the old 3-point, although they usually don't have that much output. That power might explain the chunk of spruce missing from the top.

[Michael Gowell]

I've admired this instrument in a photo I have of the brothers (and next generation Alan Lilly) taken backstage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. I just assumed it was a nice old 3-point F that had at some point acquired a 30's style block inlay fingerboard. It makes for an interesting looking mandolin with the delicacy of the elaborate torch headstock and inlaid Handel tuning buttons transitioning to the blocks on the fingerboard...IMHO the newer fingerboard actually kind of "fits" - not historically but aesthetically.

I bought my print of this photo from John Byrne Cook at his booth at the Joe Val fest a couple of years ago. Cool photos of a young Dylan, Joplin, etc. too. I'm sure he makes some income this way, so I'll refrain from posting it. Check his website, cookephoto.com.

[Rick Turner]

We used to go see Don Stover and the Lilly Brothers with Joe Val at Hillbilly Ranch by the Greyhound Station in Boston in 1963 and '64. We were underage, but the waitresses didn't seem to mind our being there. It was a bit of a rough spot...in what became known as the "Combat Zone". Lots of drunken sailors, hookers, etc....and great music.

[dhmando]

I did a little repair and set up work on this mandolin a few years back for Evertt. It is no doubt one of the best three point Gibson F-4 mandolins I ever played. What a great piece of early bluegrass history. Mr. Lilly mentioned he also recorded with Flatt and Scruggs on that mandolin.

[John Kasley]

Dave,
Do you know anything about the history of Everett's 3 pointer? How did it come to have block fretboard inlays, why "The Gibson" inlay is absent on the headstock?

[danb]

The torch & wire was the original inlay for a 3pt F4, the double flowerpot with "the gibson" is something that started around 1911/1912 when they went to the 2 point design as well.

You'll see "the gibson" on 3pt f2s, however

Does anyone know the serial or have pictures to post?

[dhmando]

Dan, I may have pictures, I'll check.

[mandopete]

Here's one:

[Goodin]

Wow thats a beauty! Hey Dan that's just like yours isnt it? Would love to see more close up picks.

[f5loar]

I always knew Everett as a 60's F5 picker. That's what he had every time I saw him in the 60's and 70's.

[danb]

Looks like a serial 10000 or so.. unless the tp cover was swapped. Those are indeed my favorites, I could look at them all day

Here's the Beimboozler:

[Michael Gowell]

What a nice outline that pickguard has!

[David Newton]

Classy, that one.