Red Rector

Red was known for playing his Gibson A4. In 1945, at 16 years of age, William “Red” Rector purchased his 1921 Gibson A-4 mandolin, serial #69217 in Asheville, NC from friend and musician Harold Williams for $45. This was Red’s second mandolin, his first was a Kay. It was a cheaper made Instrument that he started out on but it wasn’t good enough quality for a professional musician. He had been borrowing mandolins including his friend Red Smiley’s Gibson F-12 to play when he could but he needed a good mandolin of his own.

In early 1946 Red was offered a job at WPTF in Raleigh with rising stars Johnnie and Jack. He was there about a year before taking a job and replacing Ira Louvin in Charlie Monroe’s band in Knoxville. Between 1947 and 1949, Red recorded 20 songs with Monroe including Red Rocking Chair, Rosa-Lee McFall and Time Clock of Life. It wasn’t long before Red accepted a job in Carl Story’s band, the Rambling Mountaineers. Through the years he ended up recording over 100 songs with Story.

Over his career, Red traveled all over the world with his A-4 and used it on many recording sessions. It can be heard on the very recordings mentioned above as well as recordings with Reno and Smiley, Wade Mainer, Hylo Brown, Norman Blake, Jethro Burns, Grandpa Jones, Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, Bill Clifton, Don Stover and many, many more.

There is a very special video on YouTube of Bill Monroe and Red on stage together playing two instrumentals in harmony on their two mandolins. Bill playing his famous 1923 Gibson Lloyd Loar F-5 and Red playing his A-4. The two mandolins sound fantastic together!

Although Red owned other mandolins, the A-4 remained Red’s #1 musical companion until his death in 1990. Looking back, it’s crazy to think of all the iconic instruments the mandolin has made music with. Mother Maybelle’s Gibson L-5, Red Smiley’s D-45, Don Reno’s RB-75, Charlie Monroe’s D-45, Bill Monroe’s F-5, Earl Scrugg’s Gibson Granada, Vassar Clements Fiddle and the list could go on and on.

Today the mandolin is kept exactly the way Red left it. It wasn’t until 2023 that Red’s strings were taken off and replaced. The old ones were at least 33 years old. The original tuners are still on the mandolin but installed backwards. A custom hand engraved truss cover was installed by Red but the original nickel silver one is still in possession of the mandolin’s current owner. The original fingerboard was replaced sometime in the mid 1950’s. Structurally the old mandolin is perfect, cosmetically it shows years of love and use. It is an extremely fine sounding mandolin with a deep woody and dry tone. Many a tune has been played on the old mandolin, it was in the hands of a mandolin master for 45 years.

Red was asked many times why he didn’t play an F-5, his response was, “the A-4 suites my style”