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Thread: Tom Morgan

  1. #1

    Default Tom Morgan

    Not really about vintage but I think most folks who know this stuff will be watching this section.
    I saw a review for a re-issue CD of Frank Wakefield, Red Allen and the Kentuckians. The bass player is listed as Tom Morgan. Would I be correct in assuming this is the same TM that was one of the early F-5 builders?
    I love the topic of how individuals took on building mandolins because of the shortage of good ones. This has been covered before but maybe some new info will come to light.

  2. #2
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    I have one of Tom Morgan's Autoharps -- 'bout the best harp I own...
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    He is indeed the same Tom Morgan. The latest CD reissue is a compilation of the Kentuckian's 1963 radio shows performed in Wheaton, Md. I have a tape from one of those shows where Tom describes the mandolin that Frank Wakefield is playing as one he just finished. 1963 predates a lot of other builders. Tom was certainly one of the first to build F-5 copies.

    Dennis Satterlee

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    Formerly F5JOURNL Darryl Wolfe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    I know Tom quite well. He was into building banjo necks also. He was one of the first people to actually have any mandolin plans in blueprint form. My Dad and I visited him along with a banjo playing friend sometime in the mid 60's.

    I also distinctly remember him having a converted F4 at the Carter Stanley Memorial celebration at Cole Field House MD. This was probably right after Carter dies, so say early '67. Monroe broke a string and Tom handed him the conversion....not a lick was missed and it sounded quite the same.

    I last spoke to him roughly 10 years ago. He was just outside Chattanooga where he has been for years. I believe his late wife built the autoharps
    Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
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    Registered User f5joe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    January 2013: Tom with James Alan Shelton

    IMG_2026 by f5joep, on Flickr
    ..... f5joe

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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Story I've heard is that it was Tom that put the neck in Frank's Loar that was rescued from the trash after Pee Wee threw it away.

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    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by Darryl Wolfe View Post
    He was one of the first people to actually have any mandolin plans in blueprint form.
    When I first set out to build an F5 mandolin, the only information out there were the two 8x11 sheets of paper that Tom put out...

    Hard to believe, but (to my knowledge) true....

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    Formerly F5JOURNL Darryl Wolfe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by Spruce View Post
    When I first set out to build an F5 mandolin, the only information out there were the two 8x11 sheets of paper that Tom put out...

    Hard to believe, but (to my knowledge) true....
    Actually I think they were 8-1/2 x 14 legal size Bruce...hahahahaha
    But there was some really good info contained in them...right down to which pieces of pearl inlay is darkest
    Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
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  10. #9
    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by Darryl Wolfe View Post
    Actually I think they were 8-1/2 x 14 legal size Bruce...hahahahaha
    Mine were "normal" sized sheets (3rd or 4th generation), so I guess I was missing something...

    Quote Originally Posted by Darryl Wolfe View Post
    But there was some really good info contained in them...right down to which pieces of pearl inlay is darkest
    I wore those things out...

    Now, you can peruse this site for days reading discussion on how the points were executed, or collecting Hacklingers of well-known Loars...
    Then....not so much.

    It's no wonder the work that is being done now is so damn good...

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    D. McCash june39's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    These mandolin plans sound very similar to a set of plans I got from Benny Cain in 1976. Since they both lived in the DC area is there a connection?

    Doug McCash

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    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by june39 View Post
    These mandolin plans sound very similar to a set of plans I got from Benny Cain in 1976. Since they both lived in the DC area is there a connection?
    The Morgan plans were the only ones out there at the time...
    Or, at least the only ones I was aware of, and I was looking hard...

    Love to have a look at any others that might have been floating around...

  13. #12
    Formerly F5JOURNL Darryl Wolfe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by june39 View Post
    These mandolin plans sound very similar to a set of plans I got from Benny Cain in 1976. Since they both lived in the DC area is there a connection?

    Doug McCash
    Yes...both active at same time. My original "F5Journal" started with Bennys list...I got my Morgan plans when he lived there too

    Bruce, I'll check the size of mine tonight. It just seems like there was a fold in them. Something is also telling me that Tom had an early version and a later one too.
    Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
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    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by Spruce View Post
    When I first set out to build an F5 mandolin, the only information out there were the two 8x11 sheets of paper that Tom put out...
    OK, here's a link to the Tom Morgan plans...
    (thanks to Douglas McCash for the scans)....

    Looks like my memory (once again) is fallible...
    More than 2 sheets, and larger than 8 x 11...

    "Revised June 71", if I'm reading that correctly...?

    Man, do these bring back the memories...!

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  17. #14
    D. McCash june39's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Revised June '71 is correct. The pages are 11 1/2 x 14 inches, too much for my scanner.

  18. #15

    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    I have one of Tom Morgan's Autoharps -- 'bout the best harp I own...
    Kind of begs the question....well, can we ever really have too many autoharps? Would that be AAS?

    At one time I found myself with 6 B-bender telecasters, well actually 5 tele B-benders and one strat with a B-bender, in addition to my "other" regular telecasters.....of course, I was single then and hadn't purchased a home.....

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  20. #16
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Mando View Post
    ...well, can we ever really have too many autoharps? Would that be AAS?...
    Let's see, as memory serves me: in addition to the Morgan, I have an AutorinoHarp made by the late Mike Autorino in the '70's, a '50's vintage Model 73 Schmidt 12-bar "black box," a Model 6 "Deluxe" from around 1900 with six bars and shifters so it plays 15 chords, an 8-bar from the late 1890's, a 5-bar Zimmermann from the original Philadelphia shop (red felt) that's probably about 1887-88, and a Guitaro, which was the weird guitar-shaped hybrid that Schmidt put out in the late 1970's.

    I use the Zimmermanns, Philadelphia and Dolgeville built, for historical programs, and the Model 73 for that "Carter Family" sound. The Autorino hasn't been out of its case for decades, and I do plan to take it to a good luthier to have it taken apart and restored to excellent playability. The Morgan is my favorite "performance" instrument for right now.
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    Flatiron 3K OM

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    Formerly F5JOURNL Darryl Wolfe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    I believe the revision added sheets. I want to think the original was only 2 sheets
    Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
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    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

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

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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    I've never seen those plans before. I had no idea they were that detailed and accurate. Wonder why Siminoff didn't get a set an copy it for his book?

  25. #20

    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Of coarse he did include a wood screw in the heel of the neck. Not exactly accurate.

  26. #21

    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    I have an image in my mind of how so many guys started building F5's around the same time but that doesn't mean its correct. But I guess it started along with the early festivals and the growth of jamming instead of just listening to established acts. Whoever was the earliest to build one would show up and others would get to try it and maybe decide they could do it as well.

  27. #22
    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Hilburn View Post
    Whoever was the earliest to build one would show up and others would get to try it and maybe decide they could do it as well.
    I remember building an F5 out of necessity...
    I just couldn't afford a G^&*%n, and they were basically the only F5s out there in the early 70's...

    But I couldn't imagine building one without studying the real deal...
    I lived pretty close to Lundberg's while going to school in Beserkeley, and would run over there quite often to gaze at a Loar or two (and more than a few F4s), and take as many mental notes as possible...

    I think I started this in '74 or so, and kind of let it lapse, even though I was close to being done...
    Then Siminoff's book came out, and that was the impetus to finish it off...



    Workmanship-wise, this is/was a gawd-awful mandolin, but it sounded OK...
    ...and I'm pretty sure it's built from the Morgan plans, with the exception of the Siminoff influenced the peghead inlay...

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  29. #23

    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Bruce, you and me are a whole different deal (you on the coast, me in Colorado) from the whole Southeastern thing. And in both our cases we were pretty late to the game compared to Tom, Kirk, Randy, Bob, etc. But there must have been a pretty good California group who were interested in it as there was here in Colorado.

  30. #24
    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Hilburn View Post
    But there must have been a pretty good California group who were interested in it as there was here in Colorado.
    Come to think of it, there were a few folks...
    Stan Miller was building, as John R. was playing one of his mandolins before he got the Loar in what, '78 or so??...
    Todd Phillips and David Morse were building over in Santa Cruz...
    Anyone else?

    I remember a few articles in MWN--probably influenced by Todd--on building mandolins. Where to get materials, etc.
    That might even be where I heard about the Morgan plans?

    But yeah, not a ton of folks...

  31. #25
    Formerly F5JOURNL Darryl Wolfe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Morgan

    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
    Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
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