Loar Picture of the Day

[jim simpson]

case closed!

[fredfrank]

Hey Charlie now that you see how a double Loar case looks that actually has pockets in it why not do one up for sale for all us multi-Loar owners out there? #

Sounds like a very small niche market. Multiple Loar owners. Probably not a lot of those would care to take one Loar out and about, let alone two.

[Glassweb]

Forget the double case... who wants to lug something like that around? I'll gladly take the 2 Ferns however... with a matched pair of Caltons in Vintage Green please!

[GTison]

I remember we had a discussion about the fret placement on newer MMs and Loars, and now these ferns show up with seemingly the same fret position as modern ones or am I not seeing it right? #

Compare this pic from a previous post to the above pics

[Darryl Wolfe]

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle. Great catch Bowfinger. We learn something new every day. So, an example of ever changing templates at Gibson during that period

[f5loar]

It's possible that during that time and certainly Loar's time there was at least 3 guys and maybe up to 6 that could build the F5 from start to finish. Would not each guy have their own templete at his own station? Possible guys left or died and templetes got lost and new ones had to be built from the old ones. Wouldn't it be nice for a film to show up showing them making the F5 of the 20's?

[Darryl Wolfe]

I don't really buy that argument, however two distinctly different templates apparently existed and were interchanged during this period. Here is one just a few numbers off with the Loar style profile. Looking through the archives there are only a few later 20's Ferns with the non-Loar profile

[Charlie Derrington]

Neither do I, Darryl... there would have been bulk fingerboards available to all builders, and they would have used whatever was available out of the f/b bin.

However, it is interesting to note that the Loar period fingerboards were calculated to the closest 1/64th while the modern boards are calculate to the closest .0001. It might have been that a different engineering calculation was tried, at some point, as an experiment in improving intonation. Who knows?

Still, it's very interesting as I hadn't noticed the modern spacing on any old boards, before.

Charlie

[mandopete]

Darryl - that picture looks good enough to eat!

[banjo1]

The luchy owner of these twins has really got something to proud of Darrly
Great pics.

[Darryl Wolfe]

Here is H5 #76491. Photo courtesy of our own F5JOE

[MML]

Nothing like a Loar signed mandolin with growth hormonial problem #

[johnwilson]

Sunset Park, PA, 1963 there's a guy trying to sell a Loar from the trunk of his car but there are no takers 'cause it's a mandola and the price is $475!

[Darryl Wolfe]

Great story John. #It kind of reminds me of some of the A-5 Loar stories. #"where is the scroll, I don't want that", and it also reminds me of how smaller bodied Martins were received (pearl or no pearl)

[Darryl Wolfe]

Some interesting info is posted in this thread
1923 Service Manual

[f5joe]

Here is H5 #76491. #Photo courtesy of our own F5JOE

Boy, that mandola smelled jus' right!

[Darryl Wolfe]

Thanks for the photo Joe, that one had been documented by serial number only previously.

[mandophil(e)]

Darryl/Dan:

Any news on the "twins"? It seemed like the owners were considering putting them on the market, but no news has come out on that.

[Darryl Wolfe]

I haven't heard anything. Will check on status

[mandophil(e)]

Thought I'd give everybody something pretty to look at this morning.

[Darryl Wolfe]

Yep..I love those. The later dainty fern and logo, combined with the Loar style reverse tuners. The prettiest in my opinion. Here's 86652 where the inlay is positioned a shade different

[mandophil(e)]

The two are very close. The one I posted is 86104, FON 9619. I bet they're from the same batch. After a set-up by David Harvey it is a killer mandolin.

[Darryl Wolfe]

Well, this thread has to have Lloyd's Loar from the Loarfest thread. Of note is gold hardware, apparently original gold F4 style tailpiece. It also has a Virzi, intalled in a serial number batch that usually does not have one.

[danb]

I'll get my shots of Lloyd's up in a bit..

Here's 71901 1/12/23

[danb]