This is a question I suppose everybody on the 'Cafe knows. But somehow, I don't, so to keep up my street cred concerning mando-geekdom, I thought I would ask. Did Bill Monroe's mandolin (the 73987) have -- or ever have --Handel tuners? I didn't think so, but looking at the famous tribute picture in the wallpaper section (the one with the brown background, and the dates September 13, 1911 - September 9, 1996 inscribed on it), they look like they might be Handels. Of course, that was the pre-repair, c. 1979 version, with part of the scroll missing. I don't know what the original barber shop version had, what Gibson did to it in any of the repairs they made, or what it now has (may peace be upon it). Does anyone know??? My wife just read this question looking over my shoulder, and said (1) she couldn't believe I was asking this, and that I even knew the details that I DID know (which makes her think she should have married someone else), and (2) that there would be anybody out there who would know this and would bother to write. I think she is wrong on both counts. After all, as I told her, the folks on the 'Cafe are pretty knowledgeable, and someday all my mandolin may be hers. (Big yawn).
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