Monroe-My Last Days on Earth, playing a different mandolin??

[darylcrisp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDfLmi8dvoU

looks really new, shiney, not the mandolin I've noticed him playing in other videos??


just found this, a really cool video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zov5eZBPfs

okay, just found another nice one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caUaiHs4hsc

d

[Mickey King]

He mentions on a live album the he was playing his manager, Ralph Rinsler's mandolin on Get Up John and also said it's in better condition than his. Maybe that same mando. Probably, both those songs used different tuning so he used it and not have to re-tune his mandolin.

[Mike Bunting]

both those songs used different tuning so he used it and not have to re-tune his mandolin.

that would be the obvious conclusion.

[almeriastrings]

There are two (other) good reasons to have Get Up John and My Last Days on Earth in your set list... other than the fact they are great tunes and fun to play, that is... now you really need more mandolins!

Toss in a sawmill version of Jenny Lynn and now you need four

[Mike Bunting]

There are two (other) good reasons to have Get Up John and My Last Days on Earth in your set list... other than the fact they are great tunes and fun to play, that is... now you really need more mandolins!

Toss in a sawmill version of Jenny Lynn and now you need four

I can get behind that! Plus one for deadman tuning.

[G7MOF]

Sorry, I know I'm no master musician, but beginning of that first link sounded bloody awful!!!

[GTison]

In the first video, to me the mandolin looks like one of the F5L s he had. Could also be the Randy Wood or an Ibanez. Hard for me to see the logo. Sound quality is not great quality in the video. You can see Tater Tate playing the bass but can not really hear it. So, the mandolins bass overtones are probably diminished also.

[Hendrik Ahrend]

Looks (and sounds) like an original early Loar F5 to me. Should be Bill's other Loar mandolin in good condition before it got damaged in Nov. 1985. #72214, signed Feb. 26 1923.

[Bernie Daniel]

If you notice from the notes that first video was recorded at a concert that happened in 1985 (exact date not given) so it might have been after the famous fire poker incident down on his farm? If so, I expect that he is playing the Gibson F-5L that Gibson gave Bill back in about 1978? Not sure about that year.

An aside: I guess he plays that tune in a Dm open tuning? I think I have read that it is: A A; D D; A C; & D F. Hard to believe that the 0.016" string does not break if you try to bring it up to C?

[palosfv3]

Tuning for LDOE is

4th course: g# g#
3rd: c# c#
2nd: g# b
1st: c# e

I believe a tab is posted on the Mandozine site

[AlanN]

Bernie has it right. That is exactly what Butch learned us at his seminar.

[lenf12]

Bernie has it right. That is exactly what Butch learned us at his seminar.

Anybody got the tuning for Get Up John? It's similar to MLDOE but a bit different iirc. Dang, I can't remember it though and I too "learned" or more accurately was exposed to it during a Butch B. seminar at the Classical Mandolin Society convention back in the 90's. As kind of sidebar, I was playing in the Providence Mandolin Orchestra at the time and Butch was the featured soloist at one of our concerts. He was traveling with just one mandolin and needed to borrow an F-5 type mandolin so he could play MLDOE in this altered tuning without re-tuning his main axe. I loaned him my '96 Weber signed Gibby F-5G and had the pleasure of listening in the audience as Butch beautifully played solo MLDOE on my re-tuned mandolin. Thanks for conjuring up that fond memory AlanN!!

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[sgarrity]

Tuning for LDOE is

4th course: g# g#
3rd: c# c#
2nd: g# b
1st: c# e

I believe a tab is posted on the Mandozine site

This is the tuning that My Last Days on Earth was originally recorded in on the Master of Bluegrass album. It was later that Monroe used the Dm tuning. He also used Dm when he did the Homespun video. I like it in the original C#m tuning myself.

Get Up John is F#A DD AA AD

[Willie Poole]

That looks like an F-5L to me, it has gold tuners and his F-5 Loar didn`t, Yes it didn`t sound quite right to me either...

[Bernie Daniel]

...I loaned him my '96 Weber signed Gibby F-5G and had the pleasure of listening in the audience as Butch beautifully played solo MLDOE on my re-tuned mandolin. Thanks for conjuring up that fond memory AlanN!! Len B.
Clearwater, FL

Lovely! Bet you wish you had a video of that!

[Bernie Daniel]

That looks like an F-5L to me, it has gold tuners and his F-5 Loar didn`t, Yes it didn`t sound quite right to me either...

My thoughts exactly and also that performance was in 1985 so both his Loars were probably in pieces at the time under Charlie Derrington's care?

[Hendrik Ahrend]

My thoughts exactly and also that performance was in 1985 so both his Loars were probably in pieces at the time under Charlie Derrington's care?

Bill's Loars were smashed in Nov. 1985, the Berkshire Mt. Festival was earlier, around the end of July, if I'm not mistaken. Note the vintage splayed-out Waverly tuners on both the 1st and the 3rd video (can't open the 2nd). Same Loar, I'd say.

[Bernie Daniel]

Bill's Loars were smashed in Nov. 1985, the Berkshire Mt. Festival was earlier, around the end of July, if I'm not mistaken. Note the vintage splayed-out Waverly tuners on both the 1st and the 3rd video (can't open the 2nd). Same Loar, I'd say.

Sounds like you have better info than me!

[Hendrik Ahrend]

I looked for some more information; check out this thread:
http://http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?34102-Where-is-bill-monroe's-loar

Evan Reilly:
"Bill mostly used the second Loar in cross-tunings. He initially had it in 'Get Up John' tuning, but when 'My Last Days...' became popular, he kept it in that tuning. He would bring it out onstage to play those requests. I am not sure that he ever recorded with it, however."

F5loar:
"It's Bill's 2nd Loar the Feb. '23 that is still missing since his death in 1996."

[f5loar]

He has his 2nd '23 Feb. Loar in that video above. This would be after the CD repairs. He repaired the July '23 first and then took his time on the 2nd one claiming there was more damage to the tone bars on this one and he never could get it sounding back right. The stage lights are kinda funky on the shine but that's it. Has the right Loar shading, binding, truss rod cover position, tuners and even the strap is the same as when he used it in the instruction video on the same song. Even sounds the same there too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caUaiHs4hsc

[Bernie Daniel]

He has his 2nd '23 Feb. Loar in that video above. This would be after the CD repairs. He repaired the July '23 first and then took his time on the 2nd one claiming there was more damage to the tone bars on this one and he never could get it sounding back right. The stage lights are kinda funky on the shine but that's it. Has the right Loar shading, binding, truss rod cover position, tuners and even the strap is the same as when he used it in the instruction video on the same song. Even sounds the same there too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caUaiHs4hsc

That is a great video -- I've seen it before somewhere but I can't remember where. If that is the damaged 1923 F-5 I think it still sounds pretty decent especially considering what it went through. I did not know it had gold hardware. But that mandolin that is now missing right?

On that tune, My Last Days on Earth, didn't someone work out a way to play it in standard tuning? If so, who did that?

[Hendrik Ahrend]

He has his 2nd '23 Feb. Loar in that video above. This would be after the CD repairs...

Just to get it straight, wouldn't at least the first video - Berkshire Mt. Bluegrass Festival 1985 - show that Loar before the damage?