# General Mandolin Topics > Vintage Instruments >  Happy 89th Birthday to a fine batch of Loar signed mandolins

## Scott Tichenor

Happy 89th birthday today to some pretty well known Loar signed mandolins owned by Chris Thile, John Reischman, and Mike Marshall and possibly some folks that frequent this forum. Pretty good company I'd say. 

Below, Chris Thile's Loar in the hands of its original owner, Virgil Bisagno, photo taken in El Dorado, Kansas, and then a picture of the owner as a member of Fisher's Gibson Orchestra of El Dorado, Kansas. Third row back, third from left.





Also, a nice set of photos of Chris' mandolin from the Mandolin Archive.

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Marty Jacobson, 

Rush Burkhardt

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## JeffD

This stuff is so cool.

If some forensic musicologist were to find a picture of the owner of my '23 A2, I would have that framed in my office.

I am the original owner of two of my instruments, and though they will never be as famous as a signed Loar, I have pictures of me holding them, that I keep with them in envelopes in the cases. Maybe in 89 years someone accomplished will acquire my Aspen II with the cowboy art, and not have to wonder who owned it first.

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Bluejay, 

Jim Garber

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## Hendrik Ahrend

Here's my 9 year-old daughter Lisbeth picking some on my somewhat older mandolin, #75319, not far away from Chris's #75316 and 75318.

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## f5loar

Other well known pickers of this date include Gene Johnson of Diamond Rio, Andy Statman, Phil Rosenthal and Dewey Murphy who will donate his to the IBMA Musuem in Owensboro, KY upon his death.  A very good day indeed for these F5s.

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## William Smith

> Other well known pickers of this date include Gene Johnson of Diamond Rio, Andy Statman, Phil Rosenthal and Dewey Murphy who will donate his to the IBMA Musuem in Owensboro, KY upon his death.  A very good day indeed for these F5s.


Yessssssssss Sirrrrrrrrr indeed,,Uncle Gene's is the first great one I've played on,, Some killer tone and volume to that one,Personally love the 18th batch,so a VERY HAPPY Birthaday

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## Glassweb

Some of the best Lloyds I've played were from that signing date and two of them had Virzis! My first Lloyd was a Feb. 18th with a Virzi that was DEAD mint and sounded spectacular... probably the best tone of any Lloyd I've ever played. I believe it now resides in Europe.

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## carleshicks

That picture of the mandolin orchestra has 3 f-5s in it. What year was that taken?

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## Jim Hilburn

Who knows the story of Gene Johnson having a mute on his because it was just too loud?

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## f5loar

I've not heard the exact date but one knows for sure it was after 1924 or in 1924.  I wonder if the little boy sitting on the front holding the brand new F5 still has it today! I bet his daddy was RICH!   Another one in the closest to be found.

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## JeffD

The A2 held by the other front row youngster could very well be mine.  :Smile:   Oh to be able to know if its true.

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## Scott Tichenor

> That picture of the mandolin orchestra has 3 f-5s in it. What year was that taken?


All of the information about Chris' Loar and the instruments identified in the picture are contained as part of this Chris Thile interview we published last year.

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## Scott Tichenor

> Other well known pickers of this date include Gene Johnson of Diamond Rio, Andy Statman, Phil Rosenthal and Dewey Murphy who will donate his to the IBMA Musuem in Owensboro, KY upon his death.  A very good day indeed for these F5s.


Andy Statman owns and plays a Loar??? You sure about that?

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## Glassweb

> Andy Statman owns and plays a Loar??? You sure about that?


Andy owned and played a Loar back in the late 1960s-early 70s... bought for him by his father. I believe he sold it to travel to Europe and study Middle Eastern music...

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## sgarrity

Interesting......ya learn something new every day.  He sure sounded amazing on his Kimble last night!

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## William Smith

> Who knows the story of Gene Johnson having a mute on his because it was just too loud?


Howdy,,If I remember right Uncle Gene told me his dad built him that,,its not a mute but a palm/wrist rest so ya don't rest your hand on bridge..kinda neat..

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## Jim Hilburn

Well I had that story all wrong.

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## jasona

> Interesting......ya learn something new every day.  He sure sounded amazing on his Kimble last night!


He's playing here in Berkeley tomorrow night, but I head back to Cow Town before he takes the stage  :Frown:

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## Hendrik Ahrend

> I've not heard the exact date but one knows for sure it was after 1924 or in 1924.


 ... and before 1926, since the picture appeared in Catalog "P".

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## Burk

Wow. That is cool stuff.

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## f5loar

so take into account long run times on print set ups in those days it's likely 1925.  You got that one guy in the back with a '24 tenor Mastertone resonator banjo trying to ease in there to let everyone know the banjo boom is starting up and the mandolin boom is dying out.  The guy with the banjo uke is just lost.  Can't hear him anyway.

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## Loudloar

Does anyone have a higher quality version of this companion photo of Fisher's Gibson Orchestra?

Steve

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## AlanN

In the Kansas photo, the lad sitting in the front with the high stockings resembles a young Bill Monroe and the guy on the left (Loar F-5?) is grabbing what looks like an antecedent of our G chop chord!

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## Loudloar

My personal hypothesis is that the guy on the left is Mr. Fisher, the lad with the expensive F5 is his son (not a paper-route mando), and mom is sitting in the chair behind him. Compare with the picture above, where all three of them are standing prominently in front of the car, with all of Mr. Fisher's students in the background. Clearly they had just been in a parade.

Steve

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## Scott Tichenor

> Does anyone have a higher quality version of this companion photo of Fisher's Gibson Orchestra?
> 
> Steve


This image is from page 12 of Gibson Catalog Q so anything viewable is going to be a copy of a copy at least. Probably about as good as it's going to get since the original is so small.




> My personal hypothesis is that the guy on the left is Mr. Fisher, the lad with the expensive F5 is his son (not a paper-route mando), and mom is sitting in the chair behind him. Compare with the picture above, where all three of them are standing prominently in front of the car, with all of Mr. Fisher's students in the background. Clearly they had just been in a parade.
> Steve


Pretty strong evidence to the contrary. Fisher did not have a son according to genealogical records found by Joe Spann. He had two daughters, one who died in infancy. He was born April, 1885 and married in 1906 so would have been married at 21 but the pictures of the orchestra taken around 1925 when he was 40. The math there suggests a son after 9-10 years of marriage that wasn't documented. Possible, but improbable. I think Fisher is in the middle in the formal photograph from the interview sitting down, and standing just right of the sign in the above. One thing I noticed in most of the photographs in the yearbook was that photographers tended to put leaders, presidents of clubs, etc. in the middle. Couldn't have been many people owning cameras in the mid 20s. We'll only know for sure when I can get into the microfilm at the museum. Right now that might not be until late March or April due to some spring break travel plans. It's a puzzle, but it's coming together. Have a bunch of information I've never shared about the group and plan to hold onto it until I can dig through the newspaper archives.

Another reason I think the lady on the left isn't Mrs. Fisher is because one of the elderly granddaughters of the Semisch family's Loar identified her as family unrelated to Fisher who've they'd never heard of, although she wasn't 100% sure. Lots of fuzzy information except for Virgil Bisagno, and that's rock solid.

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## Loudloar

Thanks Scott for your insight and all the research you're doing. 

I did a little enhancement work on the "Parade Car" photo. Hopefully this version is easier to look at.
Steve

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## Scott Tichenor

Received an email from an elderly retired museum worker in El Dorado that got wind of the research I'd been doing and tracked me down. She told me her mother took lessons from Fisher and that the orchestra was comprised solely of his private students. Probably a common practice for a Gibson agent. She says she thinks she has additional information on the group and is looking into it. I still think the next breakthrough on this will be spending time with the museum's microfilm. I anticipate those being long days hard on the eyes.

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## Darryl Wolfe

Cool stuff.  I'm still looking for the business card I have.  98% sure its Fisher and Eldorado

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## RCarrier73988

Does anyone know if this mandolin of Chris's once belonged to Benny Cain.  When I visited him in 1972; he had a very nice Loar that had belonged to a mandolin orchestra player from Eldorado Kansas.  According to Benny, this man was well known at the time, and Gibson wanted to gethim to endorse their product.  He was invited to come to the factory, and pick out the wood he wanted in it.  When he received it. he couldn't get used to the flat back.  Therefore he didn't play it much.  Benny got it from his family.  If this is not the mandolin Benny had, then it has to be a monsterous coincidence.  I played it and fell in love with it.  Benny sold it sometime in the mid to late 70s.  I don't know where it went from there.




> Happy 89th birthday today to some pretty well known Loar signed mandolins owned by Chris Thile, John Reischman, and Mike Marshall and possibly some folks that frequent this forum. Pretty good company I'd say. 
> 
> Below, Chris Thile's Loar in the hands of its original owner, Virgil Bisagno, photo taken in El Dorado, Kansas, and then a picture of the owner as a member of Fisher's Gibson Orchestra of El Dorado, Kansas. Third row back, third from left.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Also, a nice set of photos of Chris' mandolin from the Mandolin Archive.

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## Scott Tichenor

This mandolin was in the possession of Virgil Bisagno until his death. He was born November 27, 1907 and died March 6, 2006 in Siskiyou county, California. That's what you call a long-term owner. The story Chris heard that came from the seller that purchased from the family matches identically the dates we found doing research on ancestry.com. The picture of Virgil above is the one I matched from the 1925 El Dorado High School yearbook. See the Chris Thile interview from 2011 for the complete story. We know where one other mandolin in the picture is, the third, there are 2-3 possibly more people that think their mandolins could have come from this same orchestra.

I have plans in a few weeks to return to the museum to do more research as they should have their new microfilm reader in place. Hoping to find that original photo with a list of names. Also trying to figure out if Virgil's wife is in the orchestra. I believe she is but not conclusive. Also have several other people sort of identified from elderly family members or one of the members. Information starting to come together on this one.

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## Scott Tichenor

And here's how we know Virgil is the same guy that owned Chris' mandolin. The photo on the left came with his mandolin. Photo on the right the one I found in the '25 yearbook from El Dorado.

Attachment 98784

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## MyName1sMud

Great thread! Happy I decided to get on here tonight!

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