Original Parts off Bill Monroe's Loar

[Jim Triggs]

As some of you may know I worked at Gibson from the mid 80's to early 90's. I've moved several times since then and was recently going through some boxes of old memoribilia from the Gibson custom shop days. In one of the boxes I found some of the original parts off of Bill Monroe's Lloyd Loar mandolin that Charlie Derrington repaired. The parts include:
The frets
The truss rod cover
The peghead binding in pieces
The original bridge saddle
The end pin
The Peghead Tuner Gromets
Some Kerfing
A few slivers of wood with the original lacquer in tact
Some original "FLUFF" (dryer lint type material) with particles of saw dust in it that was found inside his mandolin
And a few strands of hair that i'm sure contain the DNA of the "Father of Bluegrass Music"

There is no need to inquire about these parts as they are priceless and are currently not for sale. I just thought someone may like to know the these pieces are still around.

Enjoy, Jim Triggs

[Lane Pryce]

Groovie------- Lp

[glauber]

It's always good to know that some Bill Monroe parts are still around.

That fluff wouldn't happen to be belly button fluff, would it? That would command a princely price on eBay, for sure.

[danb]

Hey Jim,

How about a picture?

[mtnrose]

what no strings??
<g>
you could have made a killing on E***

[mtnrose]

Jim said
"A few slivers of wood with the original lacquer in tact
Some original "FLUFF" (dryer lint type material) with particles of saw dust in it that was found inside his mandolin
And a few strands of hair that i'm sure contain the DNA of the "Father of Bluegrass Music""

wow, they could both be cloned....and star in the movie #

[evanreilly]

Hey, I thought James had that stuff & was going to sell it to Japanese collectors!!!
You can't fool us here on the 'cafe!!!

[Andrew Reckhart]

Sounds like a pretty good April Fool's joke to me.

[mtnrose]

"Sounds like a pretty good April Fool's joke to me."

it sure beats the one from FOTW

[Andrew Reckhart]

No offense. Just a shot in the dark!

[mtnrose]

none taken Andrew,
I didnt mean it the way I think you thought I said it, sorry

[PhilGE]

Hey, a frien' of mine's uncle, a reel upstanding, trustworthy kind a guy, ya know, told my frien' that he has possession of the poker used to smash Big Mon's Loar. He says there may be some bits of wood or laquer still on the thing. I think he was asking only $5K for the poker and had a noterized letter from a lawyer saying it's the real deal!

My frien', who's actually SEEN and HELD the poker, says there's something about the poker that makes it hard to lift, but it sure seems to have a good downstroke...




-pHIL, with all due respect for Jim.

[Moose]

Contact James Monroe, Nashville, Tennessee - he'll "sell" it fer' ya'!! (for a commission of course)

[PhilGE]

Hey! Good news... my friend just sent me a PHOTO of the real thing!

Wouldn't it be cool to use the outline of the poker as the shape for the "f" holes on a Loar copy??? 'cept this one looks kinda bent. Hey! That must be from when she used that powerful downstroke, doncha think?

[cbogle]

Laquer??

[Bob DeVellis]

Laquer!! Mystery solved!! Monroe's Loar sounded so great because he secretly had it refinished with laquer!!

[f5loar]

It was the lacquer overspray that Gibson put on it during a repair job that caused him to gently remove the Gibson name from the top. Gibson had a bad reputation back then for unauthorised repairs. Ask Earl about that fancy '49 bowtie fingerboard they put on his Granada, throwing his original 30's board in the trash. It's a miricle Monroe's Loar didn't wind up with a block fingerboard in the 50's.
Now Jim if you do have the hair of Monroe then Bill and Bessie's Love Child, Mrs. Georiga Rose would love to get ahold of a few strads for legal reasons. Contact me and I'll give you her phone number.

[TommyK]

Hey! Good news... my friend just sent me a PHOTO of the real thing!

Wouldn't it be cool to use the outline of the poker as the shape for the "f" holes on a Loar copy??? 'cept this one looks kinda bent. Hey! That must be from when she used that powerful downstroke, doncha think?

D'jer mamma knowd you ben ritin on the walls like that?

[Mike Bromley]

Hey Jim, look at the can of worms, er, navel fibre, um, belly button lint you went and opened up! Be sure to use some of that Gibbs stuff on the metal bits....

:-P

Flash

[mandopete]

Hey Jim,

How about a picture?

...or do you mean "evidence"?

[GTG]

Wow, way to bring back a weird thread from the dead!

[Elliot Luber]

Quick! Let's clone the big Mon!

[caddy jim]

Hey, I know a lady over in Yancey County that might have mixed a little DNA with the Big Mon a few years back....ummm mid to late seventies, I believe. Her name's Mary Jane by the way.

[ronlane3]

Jim,

Please do not sell that stuff. You never know who might get it and do something crazy like try to clone Bill from that DNA.. hehehehe

[Mandolusional]

Everyone is aware this was originally posted 04-01-2005, 01:03 PM right? Still hilarious though, and even more so since it has been resurrected almost 3.5 years later.