Thank you, David! Your videos are always amazing!!!

So now do a show on the new builders.

Oh yeah. That duo is 🔥🔥🔥

What a wonderful video David. Thank you so much for this content. Here are my two cents on Loar Mandolins. I live very near Elderly Instruments and for many years was given the heads up when one came to the store and would drive over and check it out. Some were incredible instruments ...some so so but I was always grateful to have the opportunity to play one. At IBMA in about 1991 after a long night jam session Larry Wexler came into the room and handed me a Loar. Maybe it was the energy of the evening or the late hour but something magical happened. My pick hardly touched the instrument and it was as if I was releasing the music from within the instrument. It was already there waiting. I played it that night until he pulled it out of my hands. A few years later my friend and mentor Butch Baldassari got me in touch with Aubrey Haynie and I bought his Gilchrist for which I will be forever grateful.

Thank you for this great work! I will always remember getting to play John Reischman`s Loar at a house party. PS happy new year!

Increíble, the tonal difference between the 23s and 24s. Its uncanny, it can be heard on every instrument.

Hate to see The Loar on new mandolins. Get real. That’s like stealing valor.

Would love to see a deeper dive on Loar. Gruhn and Joe Snapp have a video at a banjo camp that adds some perspective to this. “Acoustic Engineer” was a made up term. There was no degree that Loar acquired to earn that title. It’s funny they all remove the virzi. He also believed round sound holes were evil. Makes you wonder if he really had anything to do with them. I spoke with a prominent luthier that worked at Gibson during the CT scan era. He was able to spec 9 of them at once. He said 3 were amazing, 3 you could buy a new mandolin that sounded just as good and 3 were complete turds. I’ve only played one and it was a turd. Super disappointing when you finally get one in your hands and it’s awful. I remember the Collings mandolin next to it absolutely smoked it. Monroe, age and rarity make them what they are.

This video just was not long enough for me! Then again, an MCU rivaling epic at over 3 hours would not have been long enough, either. I was totally transfixed listening to - and trying to absorb - all the information & beautiful music. David, you are a true international treasure to the Mandolin & music worlds. Keep up the phenomenal work

Such a wonderful addition to an already impressive video library. As someone at the beginning of my mandolin journey the stories of things or people that inspire you,are very interesting and informative to watch . Well done!

Great video David! I was fascinated by the discussion regarding overtones. Thank you for creating such an informative piece.

I live my reproduction of the Loyd Loar!! Its my 1st mando, and I made a great choice! "The Loar" was about $500...a far cry from a $10,000 Loar. But for me? 😊

Nice to see some old friends (mando's and humans). A nice short version of Loar history. Although, as usually happens, there needed to be some fact-checking done. Mostly a few minor glitches; but still, these sort of projects need to get it right for history's sake. All in all it's a fun 30 minutes.

Such a great job of breaking the melody down .I refer you too alot of folks learning or wanting to step up also. Awesome KZbin channel.

Fascinating. I came to the mandolin from the guitar, and with a pronounced jazz influence (I also play four string banjo, mostly tenor). So, of course, I was aware of Lloyd Loar through the equally revered L-5 guitar; the instrument that set the template for the jazz guitar. Eddie Lang served the same function with the L-5 that Bill Monroe did a decade and a half later with the F-5: Other musicians wanted that sound, a sound that worked better for the emerging Big Band jazz than the tenor banjo that had been a staple of 1920s jazz rhythm sections. Side question: Are there any recordings of the complete set of Loar instruments together (F-5 mandolin, H-5 mandola, K-5 mandocello, L-5 guitar)? The irony of Monroe's influence is that, Grisman's Tone Poems 2 aside (and the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble), conventional wisdom makes a Martin D-28 or D-18 the "correct" guitar to match with an F-5, a role Loar himself envisioned for the L-5. Now I'm going to play one of my Loar era instruments (1924 A Jr. Snakehead mandolin; 1925 L Jr. Snakehead guitar, because unless I hit the lottery, a Loar L-5 or F-5 is out of the question).

You are the Ken Burns of the mandolin world. What a great documentary.

This was beautiful, I can't wait to get back to my Eastman now.

Really great Video. Always worth mentioning what type of plectrum used as it makes a huge difference to the sound, which is the main topic when judging mandolins. I reckon Wegen 2.00 are best.

Great little doco. Cheers from an F9 owner Australia.

“Let the mandolin teach you what IT wants you to do.” Now that’s really something to take to heart!

Roger Siminoff is my bandmate. He took care of Lloyd's widow for many years and she gave him a special present for his assistance. Roger invented and patented a machine that works the wood in, subsequent to his tap-tuning and final assembly. Thank you for the inspiring video.

Excellent video David. I've got a 1999 Charlie Derrington F5 and I'm very pleased with it.

I have become so cynical when I hear notions like this. Mandolins attributed to Loar, like Stradivarious violins, and even pre-war Martins values are market driven with very little evidence to the veracity of their superiority against other similar quality instruments made years later. It's what people in the market do. They create stratification, in Loar's case, its the first iteration, the rarity and other undetermined variables like the unique circumstance of the craftmen working together, to justify the perceived value of a particular item. Psychology pushes musicians to adopt the narrative and establish their connection to it. Great. Now I feel like a big ol' downer. Enjoy what you like for whatever reasons you like. Rant done.

Great work on this! Very enjoyable

Wonderful presentation - Bravo!!

you're crushing it hermano! economics 101 - supply and demand. hope to pick in 2025 bb!

It’s wood selection, it’s finish, it’s design… it’s nonsense.

Vert interesting, informative, and historical. Excellent!

Another excellent video, thank David. I particularly liked the info on the tone Virzi. Have any modern builders tried to reinvent/improve on this concept? Would like to have a time machine to see how the instruments of current master builders sounded in 100 years.

Great video. To slightly play devil's advocate... I was talking with George Gruhn while I was in Nashville in the spring and it was his belief that some Loars sound great and some are just fairly mediocre, and as he put it, "I've probably bought and sold more Loars than anyone alive." Now, to be fair, he was willing to admit that some of that can be attributed to wear and tear, poor storage, badly batched repairs, etc... but he still felt that the notion that all of these Loar-era Gibsons sounded like holy grails was the furthest thing from the truth.

I have totally enjoyed this little documentary. Thank you David

One of the best videos on the topic. Thanks David!!

Good vid

Excellent video thanks

The 1923 owned by Bill Monroe absolutely had the capacity for a sweet, quiet tone. Plenty of recordings prove the point, if the person didn't hear the instrument at close range.

Fantastic video, both in content and presentation. Could you please consider creating a Gilchrist version as well?

I'm from co. Down! You've made my new year!

This is so fascinating. There's also a couple videos out there of Thile playing a number of Loar mandos side by side, and hearing his take on tonality/etc. is in the same vein.

Great video! Tony Williamson's historical knowledge and insights are fascinating. And that amazing group of artists! This synergy between a great player and a great instrument helps explain why I just can't hear enough of this music!

Thanks David this is really great, it is likely you will own one of these while you are still young enough to play it. I own a fifty year old replica but with a higher arched top. We have found a full contact, non-adjustable bridge works well with it and I've always wondered what that style of bridge would sound like on a Loar.

Can't get enough of that Loyd Loar mandolin content 🫶🐿🫶,Thanks!

Wonderful to hear these treasures played side by side by such great musicians!

Excellent David!

This is just an incredible venture into the history and lore (sorry, I couldn’t resist) of the mystique of our instrument. Thank you for teaching us about the background… so fascinating! Thank you, David 🙏

That was such a joy to watch. Amazing work David - thank you!

We don’t own instruments - we are caretakers with a responsibility to maintain and preserve them for future generations to play and pass forward.

Great info. I learned much. Makes me wonder what is the quality of the Gibson F5s in the immediate years after Loar left Gibson, is a '25 or '26 F5 still a desirable mandolin?

Please teach this on your channel. I really link this version you did. I got most of it but I'm still missing a pair or two. Please

Can get about 5 partials on my TKD Falcon F style mandolin but with arthritis no more than that. I searched the internet but could not find any info on this. David could you talk to Tony and some of the other in the know people and do a video on this? Thanks! 😊

Having built 4 F-5's and owning a 1917 F-4, this was fun!!!! Thankyou.