Damn, I'll try that again--this time close the boldface tag Willie! From FRETS.COM MUSEUM:on the Lloyd Loar F-5 Only a couple hundred of these instruments survive today, and considering the high original list price ($250.00) that may be a majority of those produced in the "Loar years" from December 1922 through December, 1924. Right after Loar's departure, the mandolins were shunted to the back of the catalog, and sales dropped like a stone.
Yeah, definitely. You'd have to be out of your mind to pay TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SMACKERS for a mandolin, wouldn't you? Oh for a time machine to take me back to 1925, in the back of the store, when the things were lying around like useless rocks taking up valuable storage space in the Gibson warehouse. (I imagine.) And probably available at a discount.
If you opened this thread, you probably clicked on that link and if you're anything like me you're sighing and probably panting and drooling at the sight of those pictures. Just wondering, if you had a chance to buy a Loar now, what would you be paying? (Maybe 200,000 US?)
In all my online perusing, I've only seen one offered for sale, by Charles Johnson. He didn't have it long, and didn't disclose the selling price. It had been sadly damaged in a flood and had come all apart. The pics are still up so have a look and shed a tear.
Hmmm...another reference I found tells me I may have actually shared a stage with one once. Chris Hillman, ex-Byrd apparently owns a Loar, which he was using around the time I got to jam with him at an open stage at the short-lived Northwinds Folk Festival on Toronto Islands in the mid-80's. He sure sounded great, but I put it down to his being a great player.
So tell us, fellow mandomaniax. How close have you ever gotten to a Loar F5? Ever played one? Know any pics on the web you can blue clicky us to, or speaking of unlikely, know where there's one for sale? How much?
Willie-O
eight-string thrill-seeker
bold post deleted - JoeClone