Back when I was in my twenties, and playing bluegrass full time, I bought a mandolin, second hand from fairly unknown builder. Paid $1,000. It was a Monteleone F5 copy - one of the 10 or so he made as Loar replicas. It was #4. I played it on stage for many years, got married, had kids and it hung on the wall for two decades. Got into delta blues slide guitar.
Not being a collector I had not stayed up with the market. 5 years ago, kids all out of the house, I pulled it out and figured I would see what it was worth. Probably doubled in price I figured. A bit of a surprise to find out what had happened to the market since 1977. 4 or 5 years ago I heard numbers like $16K to $20K.
I have been playing it daily and the tone is unbelievable and it has brought me back to playing bluegrass and fiddle tunes again. It has aged wonderfully. Just an incredible instrument. Don't think I appreciated what I was playing back in my 20's. Absolute gem of an instrument.
So, does anyone know much about this first series of Loar copies that John made before he branched out? This mandolin has Gibson on the headstock and is supposedly a straight Loar copy. He only made a few, and apparently #1 never made it out of the shop. So the story is told.
Does anyone know where the other 8 or 9 F5's are?
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