PHOTOS [view
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ARTICLE [view here]
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MANDO [view here]
BOBBY CLARK [view here]
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Jim’s knowledge of Lloyd Loar style instruments is
vast. In 1986 he was hired by Gibson Guitar to build F-5L mandolins. His love
and dedication to the mandolin took him on a quest to find the creative soul of
the early Gibson mandolins. Over the years Triggs has blueprinted 30 Lloyd Loar
signed F-5’s. “When you’ve been in a room with nine Loar
F-5’s at one time, you kind of get the idea of what they were trying to
accomplish back then,”
Triggs says. Triggs acknowledges his focus
of Lloyd Loar carved instruments helped develop the philosophies he later used
in revamping Gibson’s archtop guitar line in the early 90’s. Triggs
left Gibson in March of 1992. In the summer of ‘92 he completed an F-5
mandolin for Sam Bush. The mandolin was styled after Sam’s mid-30’s
Gibson. This mandolin was the prototype instrument for what has become
today’s Sam Bush model Gibson.
Through the 90’s Jim made
nearly 350 instruments on his own. All of them guitars and many for notable
artists and studio musicians. Jim and his family left Nashville after living
there for 12 years. A move “home” in 1998 was also a move back to the
mandolin. When you’ve built mandolins for artists like Sam Bush, Doyle
Lawson, Janice Gill, Byron Berline, Joe Carr, Roland White, and Wayne Benson,
it’s kind of hard to stay away from that history.
There are not
many options available when you order one of these beauties. Radius Board
$300.00. Schaller or Gotoh tuners. With a pickguard - $250.00 upcharge. The
specs are the same as Lloyd Loars F-5’s. The price is $10,000.00 for the
Triggs 23 F-5. Case shaped or rectangle is $125.00. Overnight shipping of
instrument is $125.00. A deposit of $1000.00 is required to get on the list,
the balance is due five weeks prior to completion. There may be a significant
wait as Jim is already backordered several instruments. |
