Closed #2
Closed #2
Darryl and Dan:
You guys make these mandolins "come to life" with your descriptions. I would have never thought to look for these subtlties when looking at older mandolins. Thanks for the free yet valuable education. I guess I'll have to go to more yard sales and take a closer look at instruments this year.
Al Henderson
Jacksonville, FL
"Only two kinds of people never make mistakes: Dead people and people that do nothing!" [Al's Dad]
'81 Gibson F5L Fern, J Rowland
'07 Arches A Style #11, "Hoss"
Dan - that is one sick close-up on 76547
Is that Reischman's Loar on #2?
2015 Chevy Silverado
2 bottles of Knob Creek bourbon
1953 modified Kay string bass named "Bambi"
Mandopete, yes and yes
The photoshoot I did of JR's Loar at Wintergrass worked out very well I thought. I'll make nice big photo prints of those available online somwhere soon, several of those are going on the wall here when I get them back from the framer
Yes, those shots of JR's Loar are wonderful. I have the one you posted of the scroll set as my computer background.
2015 Chevy Silverado
2 bottles of Knob Creek bourbon
1953 modified Kay string bass named "Bambi"
I love the look of JReischman's peghead where it's obvious that thing has been re-strung a few thousand times. More utilitarian than museum piece.
2010 Heiden A5, 2020 Pomeroy oval A, 2013 Kentucky KM1000 F5, 2012 Girouard A Mandola w ff holes, 2001 Old Wave A oval octave
http://HillbillyChamberMusic.bandcamp.com
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@hillbillychambermusic
OK, here's a batch of photos I took at wintergrass of "Scratcy" aka "The Shoplifted Loar" aka F5 79833. First off, here's a macro shot of the guarantee label outside of the instrument.. recall that this was steamed off to reveal the pencilled-in serial number a little over a year ago..
Here's my shot of the Serial Number that is now revealed with the label off:
Scratchy is pretty close to immaculate. Gorgeous example of the late Loars with the dark edging to the finish, show here on the scroll
Back view of the scroll
Top, showing some silking figure on the bass side. Spruce- what could you tell us about the cut of wood and the species from that figure?
Scratchy is such a cool mandolin....
Well, the topwood on Loars is a pretty interesting can 'o worms...
It's actually pretty rare to see a top with a bunch of silking, one of the reasons being that a lot of those tops are extraordinarily off-quarter.
I'm talking like this: #/////////
Or even more, in some cases....
A lot more...
Off-quarter wood gives a very dull appearance under varnish--a look that the modern eye is not really used to.
Modern makers are pretty anal about quartered wood these days (as well they should be), so most mandolins made these days, whether by factories or custom makers, display lots silking and spider-webbing, regardless of spruce species.
The Loars, or at least quite a few of them, look "washed-out" and rather boring under varnish, the result of being made from off-quarter wood.
By the way, I know of at least 2 very well-known mando makers who have been building with wood that is equally off-quarter, because the other attributes of the wood (age, density, etc.) outweigh in their mind the "flaw" that the wood is severly off-quarter...
If it was good enough for Lloyd, it's good enough for them....
I would love to be a fly on the wall in the woodroom at Kalamazoo in the early 20's...
Because somebody really wanted Red Spruce in those F5s...
And they were willing to sacrafice a lot to get that species on those instruments...
Mismatched and off-quartered wood is common, and all fingers point to the Loar tops being constructed from a pile of 1x6 Red Spruce lumber that was selected to be relatively runout free.
But the aforementioned "flaws" didn't seem to bug them enough to not use the tops they wound up using...
There's a very interesting story behind this decision lurking out there somewhere...
Orcas Island Tonewoods
Free downloads of my mandolin CDs:
"Mandolin Graffiti"
"Mangler Of Bluegrass"
"Overhead At Darrington"
"Electric Mandolin Graffiti"
OK, ginormous photo, but it's really needed for this detail..
check the bass side on this one too spruce..
Looks to be bookmatched and quartered, with a tad of runout...
Did U get a good shot of the mismatch in Reischmann's...?
One side of that is very off-quarter as well...
I think the bass side...
Orcas Island Tonewoods
Free downloads of my mandolin CDs:
"Mandolin Graffiti"
"Mangler Of Bluegrass"
"Overhead At Darrington"
"Electric Mandolin Graffiti"
Bruce, do you have any sort of "sample cuts of wood" photos you could share? Reason I ask is I'm looking at the cuts of wood on the tops of Loars etc after some recent chatter with Jamie Wiens.. It'd be really cool to see them here (end shots showing what happens to the grain layout maybe?) in relation to Loars they appear to match?
Man, that's a tough one with the digital camera I have...
I need to upgrade...
Generally speaking, if you deviate even a couple degrees off of perfect quarter (IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII), and I mean exactly 90 degrees, you start to lose your silking...
That's why in an archtop instrument, you 'll have patches of silking that are stronger than other areas. #The arch, by it's very nature, will start to roll off quarter, and then, as it reaches the recurve, will be on-quarter again...
In a flattop guitar, you might see silking all the way across the instrument....
Again, in a flattop guitar (like the many that you see from 40-50's with off-quarter tops), you might see a whole top that is lacking in any sort of silking whatsoever...
Just like in quite a few of the Loars...
Again, the modern eye doesn't get to see this all that much, with all the perfectly milled wood that is out-and-about....
Orcas Island Tonewoods
Free downloads of my mandolin CDs:
"Mandolin Graffiti"
"Mangler Of Bluegrass"
"Overhead At Darrington"
"Electric Mandolin Graffiti"
73728's peghead leaning on some of Bruce's blocks at wintergrass:
scroll..
Really great pics dan! Thanks for sharing.
That's got to be one of the best and cleanest looking pegheads too. It's darn near perfect with the binding and inlay and proportions. Purty...
42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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---Ryan Stackhouse---
75844 @ Skinner
Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
www.f5journal.com
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Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
www.f5journal.com
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Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
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Dan, how 'bout posting a high res one
Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
www.f5journal.com
76779
Face..
Replaced pickguard is pretty easy to spot. Frets also look larger, and fingerboard inlays are not original to Loars
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