1953 BIGSBY Mandolin blonde, Excellent, Original Hard, Call For Price!

In 1952 Glenn Tarver of Sacramento California a fiddle player and
former bandmate of Tiny Moore's, and a Bob Wills Point musician, went to Paul Bigsby and commissioned a mandolin like Tiny's 5 string. In Sept. 1953 when Tarver received his mandolin #91653 he noticed that Paul Bigsby had added his Vibrato arm and also changed the position of the volume control. Other then that is was identical to Tiny Moore’s 1952 model #9352. These are the only two 5 string mandolins that Paul Bigsby is known to have made, out of approximately six mandolins total. Because of Tiny Moore's popularization of the instrument in Bob Will's band this 5 string version has come to be regarded as the quintessential Western String mandolin.

On Aug 13, 2013 after locating and talking with Mr Glenn Tarver, I learned that in 1952 Tarver had indeed commissioned and purchased this second Bigsby 5 str. mandolin directly from Paul Bigsby. He took delivery in late Sept of 1953. In the mid 50's Tiny took his Mandolin back to Paul Bigsby for repairs and he borrowed Tarver's mandolin( this one) until his own was repaired.

As time went on Tarver, mainly a fiddle player, found he was not playing his mandolin much. Sometime in 1963 he wanted some extra funds for a trip back to Texas and he asked Tiny Moore if he was interested in buying the mandolin. Tiny said yes that he had a student he thought would be interested. Tarver sold his mandolin to Tiny Moore who in turn sold the instrument to his student, Alvin Willmett. This was Alvin's prize possession and remained with his family until I purchased it this year. The mandolin is in all original condition, showing playing wear. It is in the original handmade case. (click " more details "to see and hear Bigbsy video )