As I remember, Mike Longworth made the neck and inlaid that banjo. Paul Hopkins would know much more.
Mike Longworth was one of the first guys to do inlay and repair work. If you look closely at Lester Flatt's guitar you will notice a pearl block around the 14th fret....It says "L-5"...I'm told that signifies the 5th instrument that Longworth worked on. You can also see a similar block in Curly Seckler's mandolin, and I'm told another block in Earl's hearts and flowers mahogany neck, that was removed around 1960 or so...
Jim, is that material on the top of Lester's guitar really from a suitcase? I think I've either read or heard a story from an interview with Mike Longworth that the suitcase material was all he had to re-do the pickguard on Lester's guitar.
Supposedly Flatt's pickguard in that photo was indeed leather or artificial leather. I read where even Mike L. said it was a complete failure, tonally, and was soon replaced with the big brown nitrocellulose pickguard that's in a million photos (the last pickguard was the black one with a sharp point at the bottom end), and that Martin nearly copied correctly in their Lester Flatt commemorative D-28.
Many years ago visiting friends in the Nashville area I met a man who had an old Martin D-28 with the "Longworth block" in the fingerboard, and it was either L-2 or L-3, can't remember it's been so long. I was quite tickled to see and play this old guitar!
The Old Timer
"This here man is such a sap, he won't hold you on his lap, unless you are an old five string banjo!" Lester Flatt singing to Pearl about Earl Scruggs as husband material
BTW, I'm tickled to learn about Earl's arch-top (it's gold, so is it a Granada?) in that photo. I saw it on the old gray Harmony brand LP when I was a kid. I wrote to Scruggs Music in the late 60s to ask what that banjo was. Randy answered the letter saying only "my dad has always played Gibson Mastertone banjos". So that wasn't real helpful. (Interesting he didn't mention the VEGA Scruggs banjo, even though they were included in the Scruggs Music catalog he sent out to me from good ol' 201 Donna Drive!)
The Old Timer
"This here man is such a sap, he won't hold you on his lap, unless you are an old five string banjo!" Lester Flatt singing to Pearl about Earl Scruggs as husband material
Well I'll be switched! It sure looks like gold plate on that old Harmony LP cover!!! Great to see that photo of it!
The Old Timer
"This here man is such a sap, he won't hold you on his lap, unless you are an old five string banjo!" Lester Flatt singing to Pearl about Earl Scruggs as husband material
You know I talked to Paul Hopkins at IBMA..and we had one of our many hour banjer discussions..First off he's more knowledgable on this stuff than anyone I've ever met or seen. He didn't bring the scruggs rb4 with him to IBMA...Trust me I asked lol..I wanted to just hold it for about an hour lol. Mike Longworth was absolutely without a doubt the best inlay man there was and probably still to this day...I seen some pictures of some of the stuff he invented and put into a fingerboard and peghead...UNREAL! That is really neat to see this picture again of scruggs and his archtop. Paul had an archtop at IBMA that he is making now and I tell ya is sounded REALLY good...can't even tell it's an archtop playing it. His banjo's are amonth the best if not the best for sure. Thank's for the pic!
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Earl Scruggs's Archtop
Posted - 11/02/2009 : 18:14:54
