Chris Thile

"Well, I bought myself, like so many fellows before me, a Lloyd Loar," says Chris Thille, in this interview, about his Gibson F-5.

"For most of his career, Thile has played mandolins built by luthier Lynn Dudenbostel. He acquired Dudenbostel #5 in 1998, then sold it to buy #14 in 2001. Several years later, he bought back #5 because he liked it so much. “When I first got it back I hardly recognized the sound. The mandolin hadn’t been played much and had gone to sleep. I could still hear it in the background, but I was a little concerned that my memory was bad about how it sounded. It took several months for the mandolin to get back to the sound and feel that I remembered.” His experience with “Dude #5,” as he calls it, convinced Thile that instruments go to sleep if they aren’t played regularly. “I think if you honestly love your instruments, you have to play them regularly.”

Even though he readily admits that Dudenbostel #5 is his primary instrument, he had a nagging desire to own a vintage Lloyd Loar-signed Gibson F-5. " - (http://www.vintageguitar.com/3456/chris-thile/)

In this article it is mentioned that Thile plays a Gilchrist F4 besides his Gibson Loar F5.

Chris Thile plays the Rigel Mandolins CT-110 in Nickel Creek's "When You Come Back Down" music video, as confirmed by the source "Chris Thile" on Emando. (The picture used in Emando is from WYCBD).

In the video, Chris Thile is clearly seen playing a Flatiron 3M Bouzouki during a live performance at WNRN's studio in Charlottesville, Virginia, as published by WNRN on YouTube.