This Bluegrass Life – “Those Mandolin Guys”

Nov 14, 2020 | Welcome Column

So there is this guy named Orville Gibson. He was born in 1865, and he hung around Kalamazoo, Michigan during a significant part of his life. Why is Orville important to mandolins? Because he redesigned what the world knew as a mandolin way back then. I’m talking about those mandolins that came to the USA from Italy, with big, round belly-backs. Orville redesigned that mandolin to give it a flat back. Kind of like a fat mandolin that went on a diet. And he messed with the tops too. According to one source, Orville came up with the idea of carving the mandolin’s top and back, and this idea appears to have come about because of Orville’s personal thinking cap that he had on at the time. His original ideas culminated in the “A” and “F” style mandolins that we enjoy today which sport the round sound hole in the top. What is noteworthy is that the Gibson Guitar Company can thank Orville for being born with a creative mind, starting with mandolins, and ending up as big business. Not only for mandolins, but for guitars, banjos, and other Gibson products that are for sale even as you read this. As a side note, I went to Oroville, California awhile back to try and find Orville’s relatives, but nobody there had any idea what I was talking about. Anyway, it begs the question, “If Orville hadn’t been born, would we have the design of the modern mandolin that we know today?” In any case, Orville passed away in 1918, so he couldn’t have known what was in store for one of his F-model mandolin creations. Something that happened in 1922.

Then along came this guy named Lloyd Loar. He was born in 1886, thirty years after Orville was born. Lloyd Loar was an acoustical engineer, and a significant part of his life was also spent at Kalamazoo at the Gibson Company. Lloyd got ahold of Orville’s design for the “F” model mandolins, and Lloyd redesigned that. Some folks think that Lloyd was a luthier (maker of mandolins), but knowledge experts say he wasn’t. They say Lloyd Loar was a musical instrument designer. Lloyd’s redesign was to have “f” holes (sound holes) in the top of the mandolin instead of a round/oval sound hole, as well as having the fret board be elevated above the body of the mandolin. He also made some other changes that affected the sound and volume of the mandolin. The result was the “F-5” model mandolin that came about in 1922, which had more of a violin appearance compared to Orville’s “F” model design. From 1922 to 1924, Lloyd inspected and signed the interior labels on these mandolins while he worked for the Gibson Company. This begs the question, “If Lloyd Loar hadn’t been born, would we have the F-5 mandolin that we know today?” It is significant that the basic mandolin designs of Orville Gibson and Lloyd Loar have not changed in any significant way since those two guys roamed the face of this earth. In any case, Lloyd Loar passed away in 1943, so he couldn’t have known what was in store for one of his F-5 mandolins, when years later some guy walked into a barber shop for a haircut around 1945.

There was this other guy named Bill Monroe. You know who he is. You know, “The Father of Bluegrass,” and everything else that followed in his footprints in the snow. Bill was born in 1911. He grew up in a music playing family, and as an adult he had been playing in various band configurations, using various types and brands of mandolins. But when Bill walked into a barbershop around 1945, and saw a mandolin hanging on a wall with a “For Sale” sign on it (the mandolin, not the wall), things in the music world were about to change. I figure Bill took the mandolin off of the wall, played it, and liked it. He must have liked it, because Bill was know to be picky (pardon the pun). He must have like it because he bought it for $150, a sizeable chunk-of-change in 1945. Yes sir, when Bill walked out of that barbershop, carrying that mandolin, the world of mandolin playing in early bluegrass, or backwoods music, or early country music, or whatever you want to call it, was in for a jolt. What kind of mandolin was it Bill had just acquired? That particular mandolin was a Gibson F-5, signed by Lloyd Loar on July 9, 1923. After that, Bill performed relentlessly for the public, and mandolin players gradually took notice of the barbershop mandolin. The “word” was out. The musical cat was out of the bag. And mandolin players’ eyes and ears got bigger and bigger. The eventual  zeitgeist of the mandolin world at that time was that the Gibson F-5 mandolin(s) built from 1922 to 1924, with a label signed by Lloyd Loar, was THE MANDOLIN to have if you wanted to have something special and be somebody. And it still is! The thinking now is that the Gibson Company made somewhere between 250 – 350 of these “Lloyd Loar Mandolins.” And if you think $150 was a great deal of money back in the 1940’s for one of those mandolins, you ought to see the prices they now command.  Time went by, and pretty soon every bluegrass band worth its salt had a player with one of these mandolins. Bill Monroe passed away in 1996, and he did live long enough to know that what he had started when he pulled that mandolin off of the wall in that barbershop seventy-three years ago.    

So the years went by, time did its job, and luthiers (musical instrument makers) made and continue to make copies of those early mandolins that Orville and Lloyd created. Gibson kept making mandolins after 1924, but none were signed by Lloyd Loar. A few fortunate mandolin players such as David Grisman, John Reischman, and Christ Thile own Gibson Lloyd Loar signed F5 mandolins. And because they do, the rest of us get to see and hear these wonderful mandolins by way of concerts, CDs, MP3s, You Tube, and other media. And if you are really lucky you may get to hear one up close and personal in a live jam. 

The long and short of it is that way back when, a few guys created and developed something that they could not know would make such a positive explosion in the mandolin world. All the way from Oroville Gibson to today’s CBA Kids On Bluegrass who play mandolins, there are thousands of untold stories and experiences that have enriched people’s musical lives. All because of those mandolin guys! 

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