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What a lovely instrument!

This is a fantastic analysis of a recently discovered L-5 which turned out to be the oldest known example! It was signed on February 28th 1923 and was in remarkable shape- just a 1940s tailpiece and...

From the same period, here's some fine mandolin playing by Nancy Blake at 33:20. The tunes are: Within A Mile/Durham Rangers/Far from Home/Primrose Lass.

If the links don't work, search for...

Let's have some of Norman in his prime!



https://youtu.be/IA2CtM1B1Ak

They are living as quietly as possible, and both doing quite well.

Happy Birthday Norman!!

Here is a somewhat recent video
https://youtu.be/--kOH4XAMFA?si=gA0-6PHcNDIBNjjp

I hope that Norman Blake is doing well (and Nancy Blake also of course). Yes, happy birthday!

While he excels on pretty much any stringed instrument I am particularly happy with his guitar...

My son shares a Birthday with him, but that was not intentional on my part ( or was it?).

So happy to hear professional performers talking about Norman and playing his music at shows. He is...

I just read that Norman Blake turned 86 on 10th March, and I would like to wish him well.

I saw him play on my first trip to the USA in 1977, and have always enjoyed him ever since.

Thanks for...

Well Adrian... you know Gibson's old banner... "only a Gibson is "good enough". ;)

CNC cut inlay in CNC cut neck with CNC cut outline should be neat but they missed the design of the large scroll in the fist place and left it right off the CNC cutter.
If you look at the TR cover...

Purely from theoretical side I agree, but you cannot control all the tiny details from manager seat or spec'ing them exactly to whoever is at the bench and the result is always sum of those tiny...

Can't say I agree on this one... that larger scroll is off to my eye...

Re: old vs new Gibsons, or 30's Martins vs modern ones, I'm not sure it's really fair to compare an instrument that's been played for 90 to 100 years with one that's fresh and new. A good mandolin or...

Martin made spectacular guitars in the 30s that are still the apex of flat top guitar building 90 years later. Today Martin still hasn't been able to equal them.....
Those who might choose to spend...

The shop foreman was on top of it this day. A 2003 F5G headstock.

212482

The first Lloyd Loar F5 I ever owned (a Feb.18th with a Virzi) was the cleanest Gibson mandolin I ever owned or bought... and I have owned and bought several in my increasingly longer lifetime. I...

I can tell you from my experience they can be found. I had an Epiphone in the shop for a fret dress. The owner also brought a “big name brand” mandolin with it. The Epiphone blew it away in every...

Well, yes, you've answered your own question. In statistics, we call those "outliers." Mass production relies on building to a single spec, essentially, recognizing that all the parts are not 100%...

The original question answered but you've raised a few more by bringing up the Loar specs!

Surely there's more to it than that?

Is the variation found in precision-measured Lloyd Loars due to...

Looks like long time Cafe member, Darryl Wolfe, is going to be unloading some mandolin related items. This should be interesting...

https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/214057#214057

NFI

Well not that remote! The consensus seems to be somewhere between 1 in 10 and 1 in 100. (decimal).

But did we get to the bottom of why? I used to work for a timber research mob. We core-sampled...

I think a more reasonable goal is to play a group of instruments in your price range and then pick the one you think sounds and FEELS best. Then you can say you got the best one for you, rather than...

There are a couple of ways to look at this. Off shore instruments are probably not put through a rigorous, individual buiiding process, but are designed for maximum quantity, they are going to vary...

I saw Earl the last time he played at Merelefest. We were at a steak house right out side of the campus and Scruggs was there eating. Every few minutes someone would stop to talk to him and I don’t...