One of my highlights of the Wintergrass festival was visiting the vintage instrument room. How amazing to be able to pick up and play 100+ year-old guitars and mandolins! One afternoon I listened to Joe Vinikow of Archtop.com, play this 1923 Lloyd Loar-signed Gibson mandolin.
When I asked if he’d play my 12-year old Miller Acoustics F-5 mandolin for comparison, he graciously complied, and after several minutes called over a colleague to help judge. “The Miller definitely has more volume” was their conclusion.
1922-1924 Lloyd Loar-signed Gibsons are hands-down the Stradivarius of bluegrass mandolins, so I was thrilled to hear that a vintage instrument dealer would even mention my instrument in the same breath!