Tom Morgan

[barry]

Bruce...that is not unlike most builders of the period once you flush out maybe 3 people. So, I would be happy with that with so little input available

1972 Paganoni #8....ever see numbers 2-4 before that??

http://www.vintageinstruments.com/mu...nifulpage.html

Yeah. I've seen that before. Even though the workmanship is a bit more "rustic" than current day instruments, I've noticed that Pag #2 keeps with more traditional shapes than #8. What do #'s 3 and 4 look like?

[Jim Hilburn]

If I may get back to Toms plans. whats up with the head block??? 2 pieces with a bent piece of wood in between? Wonder why he didn't do it like a Gibson? Had he never seen inside before?

[Darryl Wolfe]

If I may get back to Toms plans. whats up with the head block??? 2 pieces with a bent piece of wood in between? Wonder why he didn't do it like a Gibson? Had he never seen inside before?

That's a mystery...I know he had converted F4'sa with new tops by the mid 60's

Barry..I've only seen a few prior to 8 and 9, but they were rough

The first one I saw was at Randy Woods shop in Nashville around '73 or 4

[Jim Hilburn]

Darryl, you are the go to guy who was there back in the early days of the SE festival scene. What I wonder is did Tom know Randy, or Givens or Bob White? It seems that Tom's plans may have been the catalyst for so many people beginning to build.

[RainbowLilly]

Hi all, I am a beginner mandolin and tenor banjo player. I signed up for this forum just to respond to this thread. Tom is my grandfather. Sadly, I do not know much about the technical specs of anything. I play a mandolin that he and my grandmother built.

If y'all have any specific questions that you would like answered, I could ask on your behalf or put you in touch with him. He still lives up on the mountain in Rhea Co. and to my knowledge does not do much online. (He still types his newsletters on a typewriter.)

[Spruce]

Thanks for that Lilly, and welcome to the Cafe...

That's a very interesting instrument, for sure...
Check out the engraving on that tailpiece...

Tell your Grandpa that he is one of our heroes....

[Bernie Daniel]

This is a wonderful thread to read. It is so amazing what everyone knows these days about how a Gibson F-model is made. Thinking back to the '70's it is amazing at how much we did not know about the same topic.

To me back then the F-model was a magical thing the equivalent of a Kirchhoff's black box (or black body) except that it was for making music not understanding radiation!

RainbowLilly have you ever thought about interviewing your grandfather and getting the whole story about how he managed to determine how to build his first F-style mandolin? Maybe you already know the story?

I assume he had an opportunity to study a Loar? Did he take one apart? Must have done so right? How else to be able to draw up the plans?

It is my understanding that in this same time frame Bob Givens also took a Loar apart while at GTR to see how they were made --did he not know about Tom Morgan's diagrams?

[Timbofood]

Once again, it is so fascinating to have family members join in the fun here on the cafe! Thanks for coming, Lilly!

[dfrosto]

Hokey Smokes! Tom Morgan.... Shortly after I got the instrument building bug in 1978, a friend gave me the Siminoff Bluegrass Mandolin book. Somewhere I heard about the Morgan plans, and wrote to Tom, asking about his plans and whether they might shed further light on this endeavor. To my surprise, a couple weeks later I received an envelope from Morgan Mandolins, containing the plans along with a typed note, something like - "here are the plans, look them over and see if they are useful to you. If they are, I usually get $10 for them". Needless to say, I immediately sent the $10. It was such a pleasure to experience such an expectation of honesty. At the time , I was taking Mandolin lessons from Jack Tottle, who played a blonde F-5. I asked him about it in passing, and he said it was retopped by... Tom Morgan! I don't know the rest of that story, unfortunately. I had an extended correspondence with Tom over the next year or two. In retrospect, I probably ate up too much of his time with my questions. You don't always "get it" when you're in your 20's, but I have always appreciated his kindness and willingness to lend guidance.
Lilly, please extend my regards to Tom- as Spruce said, he is one of my heroes! If you see fit, PM me with an address to contact him directly. Thanks!

[Bernie Daniel]

Whew....thought I was losing it...

Bruce, the first page of the plans you have seem to indicate that they are the Benny Cain plans from 1976?

[june39]

I'm thinking the set of plans was a copy that Benny Cain gifted to Clayton Hambrick at the Alexandria Folklore Centre.

[Spruce]

Bruce, the first page of the plans you have seem to indicate that they are the Benny Cain plans from 1976?

I don't know...
They are the Morgan plans, no?

[Bernie Daniel]

I don't know...
They are the Morgan plans, no?

I don't know either -- I guess I was more asking then anything -- I just noticed Benny Cain had signed the first page?

[fatt-dad]

. . . my heart is heavy for the loss of Tom's son Scott. Scott died suddenly on Saturday. A high school pal of mine. A great musician and husband to a fine woman that grew up down the street from me in Maryland. Scott had me over one day in the '70s and we went to the basement where Tom had all sorts of instrument carcasses laying around.

In high school, a lot of us hippies brought our guitars and such to school. Scott always carried a '28 000-45. I had my FG180. He could always play great! Just sharing a bit with my mando-friends a bit of my dwellings.

f-d