What if Bill hadnt invented bluegrass

[baptist mando55]

There would probably be no f5s because Gibson would most likely have discontinuied it. So more than likely no Huttos,Dudenbostels,Gilchrists,Ratliffs,Wards,Shue s, and any other maker you can think of.No Northfields,The Loars,Eastmans etc etc. Probably Gibson would have done away with 5 string banjos so no Deerings.Hubers Bales etc. Martins sale on dreadnaught would be cut by thousands and thousands. No collings,Merrills,Santa cruz etc etc. No Bluegrass Unlimited Prpably no flatpicking dvds Maybe even no Mandolin cafe. What an Impact!!

[MikeEdgerton]

Here's a similar past discussion.

[AKmusic]

"What if Bill hadnt invented bluegrass "

Perhaps I might have started playing OT sooner.

[mandocrucian]

[fredfrank]

"What if Bill hadn't invented bluegrass "

Too late . . . he already did.

[Spruce]

This interview sheds some light on who really invented it, and why we really need to all be playing flying Vs....

[JeffD]

There would probably be no f5s because Gibson would most likely have discontinuied it. So more than likely no Huttos,Dudenbostels,Gilchrists,Ratliffs,Wards,Shue s, and any other maker you can think of.No Northfields,The Loars,Eastmans etc etc. Probably Gibson would have done away with 5 string banjos so no Deerings.Hubers Bales etc. Martins sale on dreadnaught would be cut by thousands and thousands. No collings,Merrills,Santa cruz etc etc. No Bluegrass Unlimited Prpably no flatpicking dvds Maybe even no Mandolin cafe. What an Impact!!

Naaah. There was and is enough other music played on mandolin that some models, maybe not F5 or F5 inspired, but mandolins in arch top forms would still be being made and played. Banjos and guitars too. And though probably less well attended, there probably would be a Mandolin Cafe as well.

[barry k]

...He would have had a prominent career at Sears selling washing machines or pumping gas at your local Esso. He wrote a song about Ethyl I think ?? That old wringer machine that my grandma had would now be worth $250,000

[Mandolin Mick]

...He would have had a prominent career at Sears selling washing machines or pumping gas at your local Esso. He wrote a song about Ethyl I think ?? That old wringer machine that my grandma had would now be worth $250,000

[Geordie]

If Bill hadn't "invented" Bluegrass then someone else would have. I'm a firm believer that when it's time for a new idea, it will emerge one way or the other.

[250sc]

lol. Well, I guess that was shot down.

[mandolino maximus]

And my head would implode from the vacuum left there.

[majorbanjo]

No Monroe....there would have been something else......there are probably many folks just like monroe that never made it in various endeavors....that had they made it would have changed things.....it's like saying no Edison no Light bulb, No Bell no telephone, no wright brothers no flight, no henry ford...no......well you get it......there would have been somthing....but there defintely wouldn't be the obsession with Loar.....

disclaimer.....I do believe if there was no Steve Jobs...there would be no perfect computer....:-).....

[allenhopkins]

There were other musicians around -- Morris Brothers, Snuffy Jenkins, young Stanley Brothers, various incarnations of the Mainer brothers' bands -- that were getting close, so I'd expect a very similar but not identical style would have been developed by one or more of them. Whether the mandolin would be as prominent -- quite possibly not.

[Mike Bunting]

What if frogs had wings?

[baptist mando55]

I was thinkin about the impact on instruments mainly. F5 mandolins.5string banjos and dreadnaught guitars are bluegrass driven and the manufactures that i mentiond have blossemed because of bluegrass

[farmerjones]

Yes, there'd still be Lonzo & Oscar.
And the Stanley Bros. for that matter.
They'd been a lot less riding jodpers, and alot more bib-overalls and jug basses.

Intrument-wise, surely the scroll wouldn't have had the prominence.
Martin's D28 and later the HD28 & 35, would still be as prominent i believe. You have to have a Zenith, and arguably the aforementioned are in acoustic guitars.

More interesting to me if Big Mon, hadn't met Earl. What tune was Earl playing at that first encounter?

[mandopops]

...then he would have had to work for a living.

...we'd still have had Homer & Jethro.

[mandolirius]

What if frogs had wings?

The way things are going in the frog world, that may not be far off. Or at least a big tumour that looks like wings.

[Mike Bunting]

The way things are going in the frog world, that may not be far off. Or at least a big tumour that looks like wings.

The whole world is hopping to hell in a handbasket!

[Terry Allan Hall]

...then he would have had to work for a living.

...we'd still have had Homer & Jethro.

And if Jethro had become as much of an icon as Monroe was, we'd all be a lot jazzier!

And, to gently mutilate a quote from Martha Stewart, that'd be a GOOD thing!

[JeffD]

An alternate history speculation I find ineteresting is what if a different mandolin were made available to Bill, like a Lyon and Healy / Washburn, or say an A3 or something. Would Lloyd Loar be more than a footnote? I am not saying Lloyd's fame (such as it is) is not deserved, but would it have been noticed but for Bill?

[tkdboyd]

disclaimer.....I do believe if there was no Steve Jobs...there would be no perfect computer....:-).....

Little dated but still valid!

[Terry Allan Hall]

This interview sheds some light on who really invented it, and why we really need to all be playing flying Vs....

That is GREAT!

[ralph johansson]

What if? He didn't.