Loars

[Devitt]

Does anybody know if Mike and John have any modifications on there Loars? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[Darryl Wolfe]

I think John's is stock with maybe the exception of the fingerboard.

Mike's has been regraduated and Virzi removed plus fingerboard

[AlanN]

Monteleone did the work on Mike's and I understand the shavings are held in a bottle somewhere.

[testore]

John had a new nut put on 3 years ago.

[WJF]

John Monteleone did regraduate the top and (I believe) the back of Mike's Loar some time ago (early 80's?). Other mods include a radiused board with a scooped extension and the "original mod" which involved Mike and Todd (Philips) removing the Virzi with a hammer, long screwdriver and pliers. The "ceremony" was performed on a night complete with full moon and was recorded for posterity. Once removed, the Virzi was re-assembled and now occupies a spot on Mike's mantle. If pickups count as "mods" he's had several incarnations of pickups/mics installed along the way ...

[Michael Lewis]

John's Loar also has a full contact bridge along with the radiused fingerboard. New nut and frets are just normal wear parts. The original fingerboard had frets that didn't play in tune, so John had it replaced with the radiused board.

[danb]

John's tuners are also replaced with waverlies.. Full details and pictures of John's here:
75327 (http://www.mandolinarchive.com/perl/show_mando.pl?182)

Here's Mike's: 76590 (http://www.mandolinarchive.com/perl/show_mando.pl?191)

[danb]

Nice photo of Mikes from Jamie Wiens at Supergrass:

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/images/75690_face.jpg

[danb]

This shows John's radiused bridge nicely:
http://www.mandolinarchive.com/images/75327_bridge.jpg

[danb]

Interestingly, Mike's also has new *tone bars*, and is probably the most play-worn one next to Bill's!

[danb]

We've discussed this at length here before- John's Loar top is two pieces, and the bass side is slanted/off quarter compared to the treble making a very contrasting appearance. John pulls the most amazing tone out of that Loar I think I have ever heard. He very kindly let me have a play on it for a good 20 mins a few years ago, and I wasn't able to find the sweet spot. Some of them to me have seemed very easy to get to sing right, but it just goes to show that they all take a different touch, pick type, and style to really get them to bark!

[mandopete]

Yeah, I thnk we need a new designation..."The Mike Marshall Distressed Lloyd-Loar Model"

Now that's MOJO!

[Professor PT]

Yeah, and if there were ever a case for using a pickguard...

[Jerry Byers]

I suspect some of that comes from planting a pinky finger.