Re: Loar awareness...beginning when??
I hope no-one has said this, and I mean no nastiness, but the obsession with playing what the 'masters' played is a part of it. Hendrix, SRV, Clapton, Beck with the strat, Coltrane with the Selmer, the 'STradivarius'. I am by no means suggesting these instruments are inferior, and not as good as they are made out to be. I've never played a Loar F5, and the only one I've ever seen was Monroe's in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. They asked me to play it, but I said, no, I want a clean instrument. (That last sentence is a lie). It's not the tool, it's the player. Did Thile improve as a player when he got his Loars? It's hard to say. He might have, but he did some pretty amazing stuff with the Dudenbostels. Would Sam Bush have been better with a Loar than 'Hoss'? Interestingly, he played a Loar, and was offered to buy it, but he didn't like it as much as HOss.
There is no doubt that the Loar is a fantastic instrument. But is it the pinnacle? I know a lot of modern violin makers get frustrated with having to replicate a 18th century technology in the 21st century. I wonder if our modern mandolin makers (and we are in a golden age) have similar frustrations? (If I get to see Peter Coombe in Canberra this weekend I might ask him?)
And I'm not making definitive statements re instruments - just thinking aloud...
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