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Danny Roberts of The Grascals cuts loose at the Withlacoochie Bluegrass Jamboree earlier this month near Dunellon, Fla.

Danny Roberts, The Grascals‘ mandolin player, finally owns a Lloyd Loar Gibson F5 mandolin. It was an instrument he had pursued for quite a while before becoming its owner. But this isn’t the only Loar Roberts has chased. Or, at least, he thought he was chasing a Loar at the time.

He told the story in a recent interview with BluegrassJournal.com:

“I ran into a fella a few years ago when I was playing with Ronnie Reno. He was an older guy and he told me he had one of them Lloyd Loar mandolins. I asked if he had it with him, and he said no but that he had had it for 30 years. I asked him if he wanted to get rid of it, and of course he said no.

“I told him if he ever did to let me know. I gave him a promo picture of the band with my name and number on it and told him to call if he ever wanted to sell it.

“Well, a couple years go by and I was here at work (at Gibson in Nashville) and the phone rang and it was this guy. He told me he thought he would like to sell it, and he asked me what I thought it was worth. I told him (at the time) it was worth around $150,000 tops. I told him … we would find him a buyer. The serial number was one that was not documented yet and fit right in between two other numbers, so everything fit perfectly.

“Before I could do anything, he called me back and asked me ‘Don’t you want this mandolin for yourself?’ I said I’d love to have it , but I can’t afford to buy it. He told me he wanted me to have it and he loved the way I played.

“He said, ‘Here’s the deal. I am about to lose my farm, and I need $40,000 to keep my farm.” He said if you can get me $40,000.00 up front and give me another $40,000 in installments, you can have the mandolin. I told him to let me think on it, so I hung up and said to myself, ‘I have got to do this.’

“I called my wife and asked her what I should do, and I went and mortgaged one of my cars, and sold my favorite F5 to one of my buddies. I mean, I did everything to come up with the money, ’cause this guy said he needed to do this and needed to do this now or he will lose his farm.

“I had not even seen it yet, but had the serial number and he described it to me and said the only thing he did not have was the original case.

“So, I got the $40,000 and headed way up to northern Virginia where he lived. My wife and daughter, a good friend of mine here at Gibson and his wife got in our van and had us a road trip to Virginia. On the way up, we stopped off so I could sell my favorite F5 to my friend … an F5 that I have back now.

“It was such a great trip. Everyone was excited. We were rolling through the mountains way back to this little place. We got out out and I was nearly shaking with excitement.

“I had seen a whole lot of Loars, and I brought a black light and everything to check the mandolin, so it would have been really hard to get a fake past me. He went and got the case down and my wife and little girl were in the other room.

“I popped the latches and opened the case, and when I looked at it, my wife just picked my little girl up and left the house, ’cause she new by the look on my face that it was obviously a copy. I stood there and was about sick. I mean, I drove all the way up there, got all that money together, and now I have to tell this guy it’s a fake and he’s gonna lose his farm.

He thinks he’s got a real McCoy ‘cause it’s got Gibson labels and Loar’s signature. The labels looked like they had been copied to me. I handed it to my buddy and he knew too.

So I am standing here thinking why did this happen? Should I offer this man the money to help him keep his farm? Did God bring me here for this purpose? Well, he said to me, ‘Listen, that stuff I told you about my farm, I’ve got that taken care of.’

“So I had to tell him that it was not a Loar, and not even a Gibson mandolin. He could not believe it and his wife said, ‘He’s had that mandolin for 30 years, what do you mean?’ I said I was sorry, but it is a copy.

“There was nothing about it that was Gibson anywhere. It looked to be built in the late 60’s or early 70’s. I’ve ran into people since then that have seen the mandolin, but did not have the heart to tell him that it was not a Loar. … There are a lot of mandolins out there that just are not the real thing. People need to be careful and really look into what they are buying.”