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Willie Poole
May-27-2011, 11:47am
I have heard that Benny had quite a collection instruments and heard that he owned at least two original Loar F-5`s, one that was a duplicate serial number of another one....I`m just curious as to how a serial number could be a duplicate of another...Also I heard that it had a Gibson MM label with a serial number but no signature, could it be that it was one that Loar didn`t approve of but it got out of the factory somehow? Things like this interest me but it`s not really all that important....

Thanks for any comments.....Willie:mandosmiley:

Ken Waltham
May-27-2011, 10:52pm
Benny owned more than 2 Loar F5's, that's for sure. I believe he had as many as 5 at one time. I owned Benny's most famous Loar, and the one that he was associated with the most, the Ada Merrifield Fern Loar. It was I who restored it to it's original Loar specs, he was a guy who liked to change things like pickguards, etc.
I am quite sure there was no duplication of numbers in his group of Loars, and perhaps you have heard sort of an urban myth. I nearly bought a 0045 Martin he had, but, it too had some changes done, and I passed.
BTW, the Fern Loar was a fantastic example of a Virzi Loar from 1924, one that has very few equals. I still play a Virzi Fern Loar from 1924, and wonder if there was something going on with that particular batch, but, that's another story.....
Best, Ken

Links
May-31-2011, 2:14pm
I think that a couple of the Loars that Tony Williamson had for sale a while back belonged to Benny Cain. In the past year or so, I think Tony has sold a few Loars, but don't know if some of Bennies were among those.

f5loar
May-31-2011, 2:49pm
The Cain Fern was the last Loar that Benny had when he died. It is that same Fern Loar that Tony had for sale. Benny Cain was the first to write down 28 Loar serial numbers for publication in the 1970 Bluegrass Unlimited. From there the F5 Journal was started to grow to what you see in the cafe archives thanks to Darryl Wolfe and others.

june39
Jun-01-2011, 7:54am
I recently found an autographed set of F5 plans that Benny Cain made. I guess he was interested in all aspects of the instrument.

Doug McCash

Ken Waltham
Jun-01-2011, 8:19pm
Very interesting...
Yes, he was the 'original Loar Guy" when it came to cataloging, etc. The Cain Loar was a fine F5, I enjoyed it very much.
Ken

RCarrier73988
Feb-17-2013, 5:17pm
I remember Benny Having three Loars when I knew him in 1972. The fern you mentioned, as well as another Loar that was very well worn, (almost like Monroe's) and another Loar that had belonged to a mandolin orchestra player from Eldorado, Kansas, if my memory serves me correctly. It was in almost mint condition, I don't remember the serial numbers of any of them, but I tried to buy the mint one a couple of times, and he wouldn;t price it. I don't know what became of it. If any of you fellas know who got it, I would just be curious to know who it was. I did hear later that he sold it for around seventy five hundred, in the mid 70's.
Benny owned more than 2 Loar F5's, that's for sure. I believe he had as many as 5 at one time. I owned Benny's most famous Loar, and the one that he was associated with the most, the Ada Merrifield Fern Loar. It was I who restored it to it's original Loar specs, he was a guy who liked to change things like pickguards, etc.
I am quite sure there was no duplication of numbers in his group of Loars, and perhaps you have heard sort of an urban myth. I nearly bought a 0045 Martin he had, but, it too had some changes done, and I passed.
BTW, the Fern Loar was a fantastic example of a Virzi Loar from 1924, one that has very few equals. I still play a Virzi Fern Loar from 1924, and wonder if there was something going on with that particular batch, but, that's another story.....
Best, Ken

re simmers
Feb-17-2013, 7:15pm
In the late summer, 1992 Benny showed me 5 Lloyd Loars that were in the trunk of his car. He told me that one of them was insured for $25,000. He said the others were not insured at all. I remember that he showed us a list of Loars and serial numbers that he carried in his wallet.

I played the good one. I had only been playing music a few years at the time. He didn't play much. He said his hands shook too much to play as well as he used to. He was kind enough to show me some basics on the mandolin. I was always curious as to what happended to those Loars.

He also had some valuable Martin guitars. My fondest memory of Benny Cain was at the 1975 Indian Springs Festival. He and Vallie were belting out "Little Annie" under a canopy in the pouring down rain at about midnight.

Bob