What is Ira playing?

[Jack Roberts]

and where can I get one like that?

[Charles E.]

That would be a Framus. Mass produced, steam pressed tops. They can look very cool but I think they are similar to Harmony and Kay as far as quality.

[Charles E.]

Here is a link........

http://www.framus-vintage.de/modules...=EN&katID=4672

[jim simpson]

Here's one on Reverb:

https://reverb.com/item/1506001-vint...odUTMCRg&pla=1

[brunello97]

Durable.

Mick

[Spruce]

...can't get YouTube to embed...
Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT3ZInKueo4

[foldedpath]

I look at that slot head and cringe. I've owned vintage guitars like that, with a narrow slot cut into the headstock (and not how they make slot headstocks now). Changing strings was always blood loss and frustration. I can't imagine how much worse it must be for 8 strings. I guess in the olden days, they just didn't change strings very often.

Never buy a vintage slot head, unless you know what you're getting into.

[Ivan Kelsall]

With Ira's propensity for sometimes wrecking his mandolin,i suppose any cheap(ish) mandolin would fit the bill. I suppose that if you could find one in decent condition,it would be nice to work on to make it as good as it could be, & to have as a novelty item (sort of).

I've owned a couple of slot head guitars in the distant past & as long as the tuners worked smoothly (usually demanding a bit of adjustment),i found re-stringing no problem at all - simply a 'horizontal version' of what i do now,
Ivan

[Bertram Henze]

With that, you really can't blame anybody for asking about that "little guitar".

As for the slotted head: I had several instruments with that, and the problem was not the stringing-up, but their fragility - drop the instrument and you may find one whole side of the head broken off along the grain.

[Jack Roberts]

With Ira's propensity for sometimes wrecking his mandolin,i suppose any cheap(ish) mandolin would fit the bill.....

I think his first mandolin, when he was poor, was an F5. But he was definitely the type to not take good care of his instruments. A perfectionist should never play mandolin...

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hi Jack - When i mentioned 'wrecking' - i believe that Ira physically destroyed a few mandolins,not simply not taking care of them.
There's a smidgen of background here :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Louvin ,
Ivan

[John Soper]

Ivan: I think he trashed his mandolins, rather than changing their strings...

[almeriastrings]

Many years ago, I was in a car with the late Carl Story... and the radio was on. The Louvin Brothers. There was some talk about their harmonies, then Carl said (as I recall) "That Ira, he was always singing about sin.....and he sure knew what he was talking about"

[brunello97]

Ivan: I think he trashed his mandolins, rather than changing their strings...

According to Bro' Charlie sometimes they were trashed in lieu of tuning them.

Mick

[Willie Poole]

I sat and talked with Charlie at a festival in Florida quite a few years ago and he told me some things about Ira, first he said Ira was a real good luthier and that he liked to do things to a mandolin to try and get them to sound better, more to his liking, one thing he did to his F-4 was to remove the bracing and install tone bars like those in the F-5`s, Charlie said he still had Ira`s F-4 and he brought it out for some people at the festival to play, I regret that I didn`t play it...As far as trashing his mandolins he did cause some of them to be non playable after trying to do different things to them to make them sound better, usually after what he did didn`t work out like he wanted them to...Charlie said that Ira usually kept all of the removable parts after he junked the bodies in case he could use them on some other mandolins that he worked on, he never said if Ira ever worked on mandolin for other people, just his own...

Willie

[Jack Roberts]

..., Charlie said he still had Ira`s F-4 and he brought it out for some people at the festival to play, I regret that I didn`t play it......

The two mandolins I would just love to play: Ira's F4 and Jethro's A5.

[DataNick]

...can't get YouTube to embed...
Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT3ZInKueo4

Here ya go Sprucey!