70281 Loar has been worked on by Steve Gilchrist

[Mandolin Cafe]

This informating has been floating around for some time but not public but we're putting an end to that now that someone already posted a photo of it on social media somewhere and there are apparently multiple articles about it in process, or said to be. There are other pictures and we know who has them so we'll see if they get posted or not. It's currently at Carter Vintage Guitars. We obtained the photo below from someone working on a story about it. About all we know, or will own up to .

Links to the current record on Mandolin Archive, pre-work.

After

Before

[CWRoyds]

Absolutely beautiful. He did an astounding job. I love how he left the scroll wear. It looks perfect.

[William Smith]

Looks fantastic, Spectacular job by Mr.Gilchrist! We all knew it would

[AlanN]

Wowee.

I'd love to pick on it (again).

[Don Grieser]

The Wood Butcher done good.

[Andrew B. Carlson]

Great job Steve!

[mandotool]

last years hand off of 70281 @ Carters..
Steven Gilchrist ...Paul Duff ...Christie Carter

[Mandolin Cafe]

FYI - Top photo is courtesy of Greg Bass who is doing a piece for NPR on it.

[Willie Poole]

I have read where a lot of folks say that you should leave them alone and not make any changes to a Loar but this is why I think those people are wrong, in no way could doing something like Steve did change he value of the mandolin, if it does then it would be worth more in my opinion, a great restoring job...

Willie

[Hendrik Ahrend]

Amazing job! I wonder what Steve actually did to that Loar.

[mandolin74]

Howdy Alan! Well I picked on it Tuesday night at Carter's. Knocked my socks off. Have played maybe 15-20 loars in my lifetime. I believe this one takes the cake. Tuned between a C# and D according to Gilchrist. Very even sounding but has really nice low's. Steve is amazing. His talent never ceases to amaze me. Stay tuned and keep your eye out for a little video sample on Carter's website of me giving it a test run. Marc M.

[AlanN]

Marc, you rascal! Looking forward to seeing/hearing it in your lovely and talented hands.

Does it still have that zing! to the E string? That really knocked me out.

[Spruce]

Amazing job! I wonder what Steve actually did to that Loar.

+1...

...and, maybe the back story as to how the damage was done?
I seem to remember something involving biblical flooding or something?
I'm sure NPR will nail the details, right?

Needs to be played a bit by someone like me with a careless right hand and maybe a weedeater with a Blue Chip attached...

Nice work, Steve...

[Mandolin Cafe]

This was a cell phone shot from 4 days ago.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Sierra Hull spent some time with it and sent this out to her 60K followers on Facebook/and 10K on Twitter.

[Mark Wilson]

...and, maybe the back story as to how the damage was done?.

+1

[Phil Goodson]

So is this the earliest known Loar F5 now existing? (6-1-22)

[Mandolin Cafe]

So is this the earliest known Loar F5 now existing? (6-1-22)

Not a reply to your question, just a resource at Mandolin Archive.

[mandolin74]

Marc, you rascal! Looking forward to seeing/hearing it in your lovely and talented hands.

Does it still have that zing! to the E string? That really knocked me out.

Hey Alan! Yes sir the E string is killer. Love the tone! It is a pretty remarkable instrument. Boy I wish it were mine!!! Makes you play things you don't normally play.

[goaty76]

I notice that the tailpiece cover is engraved in the standard style as opposed to the Loar style. Is it a replacement or was this made prior to the "new" Loar style engraving style?

Phil

[Phil Goodson]

Not a reply to your question, just a resource at Mandolin Archive.

Thanks. My question really is: Since we know that many of our members have "insider information" and since all known Loars haven't been registered at the Archive, are there any "believable rumors" of existing Loar F5s that were signed before June 1922?

[Darryl Wolfe]

Evidence exists that there "MAY" have been two before this one. However, those mandolins may or may not exist. The only shred we have is a pickguard that was originally installed on a July 9, 1923 Loar with 70279 scratched one the back. That pickguard is crude and single bound exactly like the one here

Unless one of those turns up, this is the prototype or first born/sold to the public one

The subject mandolin here meets all of the "spec sheet data", that was subsequently revised before full production began...double bound, and such...experimental pickguard and bracket. I believe that the tailpiece cover is original to the mandolin as they likely did not make a one-off for it at the time

I documented this mandolin in 1977. At that time, nobody was tracking serial numbers and dates. I recognized that it preceded all known Loars by 5 months

I can attest that it is the best sounding Loar I have ever played. That comment is predicated upon wanting a Loar to sound like Bill Monroe. This mandolin sounds more like Monroe's Loar than Monroe's Loar if that makes any sense

I can add more information at a later time

Mr. Gilchrist was nice enough to keep me informed on the progress during the one year restoration. I am not at liberty to share pictures and details of the methodology at this moment

I can assure you that this mandolin repair is a near miracle. The original finish was under the ugly and is nearly all intact. Getting it all to what you see now was the miracle

[Darryl Wolfe]

One of the paragraphs I typed somehow disappeared.

With respect to documenting the mandolin in1977....

Mr. Pat Holland of Eastern NC owned the mandolin and graciously let me play and inspect it. At the time I was 24 or 25 and he had many years on me. He said that he had owned it some 20 years and that it came from NJ, NY, Del area (this part is fuzzy). The crack damage and wood putty repair was there when he got it. Mr. Holland was a local musician and the mandolin was known locally as like Monroes, but word never got out beforehand. He passed away a few years ago. Most of the pictures on the MandolinArchive link are from that 1977 encounter. My Dad ran into him maybe a decade later and took a few more that are on the link

[Clement Barrera-Ng]

Truly remarkable work, and the very first Loar to boot. I seem to remember hearing something about this last year and glad to see it finally came to fruition. Looking forward to the NPR piece; maybe there will be a book or documentary not long in the future?

[fatt-dad]

<snip>

I can attest that it is the best sounding Loar I have ever played. That comment is predicated upon wanting a Loar to sound like Bill Monroe. This mandolin sounds more like Monroe's Loar than Monroe's Loar if that makes any sense

<snip>

best sounding under crack and putty or under the new top?

f-d