My guest this week is Roger Siminoff. Not only is Roger an authority on instrument making, the physics of music and tap tuning, he's also an expert on the life and work of Lloyd Loar.
Loar worked at Gibson in the early 1920s and oversaw the production of some truly remarkable, game changing instruments - most notably the F5 mandolin, which went on to become an integral part of bluegrass music and shape how we see mandolins for the next 100 years.
We talked about Lloyd Loar's background, why his approach to making mandolins was both revolutionary, yet also harked back 200 years to the golden age of violin making and how Roger ended up researching Loar for a magazine piece (a piece that went on to develop into an interest in Loar's work, a deep friendship with his widow, the discovery of some long lost instruments and, ultimately, a life's work for Roger himself).
It was a fascinating conversation - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
To find out more about Roger and his books, visit siminoffbooks.com
In particular check out The Life and Work of Lloyd Allayre Loar and The Art of Tap Tuning
Roger mentions Dan Beimborn's wonderful Mandolin Archive site, detailing all the known Loar-signed instruments out there.
For more on mandolins, including info and a truly excellent forum, I can highly recommend Mandolin Cafe
Happy picking!
Matt
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Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)
Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins
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