The Loar LH-300

p90fool

Anyone had any experience of these? I've just ordered one from Thomann, so it's a bit late to ask really!

I'm not going in totally blind though, online reviews are a little patchy, but almost all the negatives are things I don't give a monkey's about.

I've tried the Godin Kingpin, but thought it was a little too clunky acoustically, more like an unplugged electric archtop. I'm hoping that the Loar will be a little more lively.

Thoughts?

Jalapeno

Carved top should make it louder than a laminate (the Godin).

For £300 it isn't going to be a vintage Gibson L5, or as tonally inspiring as a Benedetto.

Stick a pickup on it and it'll feedback, which might be what you want

thermionic

I bought an LH-200 from Thomann a few months ago and I love it. Maybe I got lucky and got a good one but it plays fantastically for a £200 guitar and it's put together very nicely indeed. I bought it for a cheap "living room" guitar that would inspire me to learn some acoustic blues but I haven't opened my Taylor's case since I got it. Obviously it doesn't sound as good as an all solid wood guitar but it's a very likeable little guitar and gets played every day. Hopefully yours will be just as good!

bertie

Jalapeno said:

Carved top should make it louder than a laminate (the Godin).

I assume its also "steam/heat shaped" ?   for strength   otherwise it'd need bracing, and that could be the ultimate decider !

Jalapeno

bertie said:

Jalapeno said:

Carved top should make it louder than a laminate (the Godin).

I assume its also "steam/heat shaped" ?   for strength   otherwise it'd need bracing, and that could be the ultimate decider !

http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

"It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides"

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

p90fool

As far as I know they're carved, with early L5 type bracing.

bertie

Jalapeno said:

http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

"It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides"

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpufso

yeah I read that, but can it not be carved and shaped ?  -   or is it just the carving that makes it arched ?   if so its a bit silly isnt it ?, I thought the point of the  "arching" is to give it strength so no (tone sucking) braces need to be used...............

p90fool

Loyd Loar's original 1922 design is braced, the 300 is based on that more or less.

ESchap

bertie said:

Jalapeno said:

http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

"It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides"

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpuf

It features a hand-carved top from graduated spruce, and traditional maple back and sides. - See more at: http://www.theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-acoustic-lh-300-vs#sthash.90Qo8O4M.dpufso

yeah I read that, but can it not be carved and shaped ?  -   or is it just the carving that makes it arched ?   if so its a bit silly isnt it ?, I thought the point of the  "arching" is to give it strength so no (tone sucking) braces need to be used...............

You need to transfer the string tension forces on the top of the guitar away from the bridge out to the rim where it is stongest. Otherwise in an archtop with a floating bridge it will "sink" the top over time, all archtops, even laminates will have at least neck to tail bracing to "support" the bridge, my Gibson 175 and 125 do.  With carved pine tops some go further and use forms of scalloped X bracing to "tune" the top.  

In flat tops, the plate under the bridge/top is attached to the bracing achieving the same purpose and stops (or at least slows down!) the bridge lifting the top.

p90fool

Well, it arrived, I ordered it on Wednesday from Thomann in Germany, and it arrived on Friday, so count me impressed.

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/5941/pfz1.jpg

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1696/ygas.jpg

Shite pics I know, but we all know what they look like. It's actually rather good. It felt very stiff for the first hour or so, almost like the component parts didn't know they were meant to be a guitar yet, but it seems to be bedding in nicely. It's very light and responsive to playing dynamics, but doesn't feel physically fragile if that's not too much of a contradiction.

It has a couple of the faults I've read about, ie, you can just about see that there's no paint under the end of the fingerboard (shrugs), and it does have one slightly proud fret which only became apparent when I lowered the action to silly electric guitar levels just to see what choked first. I'll try tapping it in gently, but if it's already seated properly I'll just give the frets a very mild levelling.

The strings are D'addario Phosphor bronze, and sound really vile with this guitar, harsh, with very brassy overtones. It mellows a little when you realise how loud the guitar is, and that you can back off with your picking hand a fair bit. The strings suit fingerpicking better than flatpicking atm, but I'll throw a set of light Gypst Jazz strings on and see what happens.

Much is made of the pronounced V neck profile on these. I totally forgot about it when I was playing it, only remembering how defined it is when carrying it about by the neck. One deviation from Gibson convention is the shallow angled scarf-jointed headstock, which is very welcome on a round-the-house beater guitar.

The top IS braced, with just a couple of braces from neck to tail as expected. Tonewise it has a pretty authentic pre-war kind of sound covering early solo jazz type stuff and the weird Hawaiian-type stuff I tend to dabble in, as well as the obvious brash jazz rhythm pounding you'd expect from it. It really is a genuine acoustic instrument, whereas rivals like the Godin are just not loud enough and seem like an afterthought from their electric archtop range.

TBH, I've always hated folk flat tops, I just can't stand their plinky prettiness, this is definitely an ideal acoustic for a Les Paul lover, both the guitar and the player.

Overall I reckon it's an absolute steal for 300 notes.

ESchap

Very nice, tempted by one of these myself.    Gibson archtops, even from the "golden" era have very little lacquer under the end of the fingerboard / neck.

p90fool

It's great fun, though I'm still struggling with the 13s I must admit!

It's hard to quantify value for money with these tbh, I'm not sure you can get a carved archtop for less than a grand or so anywhere else. A lot of reviewers complain about detail faults on these, but quite frankly if they put in the time necessary to iron those out then I'm sure I could no longer afford it.

bertie

p90fool said:

 Tonewise it has a pretty authentic pre-war kind of sound covering early solo jazz type stuff and the weird Hawaiian-type stuff I tend to dabble in, as well as the obvious brash jazz rhythm pounding you'd expect from it. It really is a genuine acoustic instrument, whereas rivals like the Godin are just not loud enough and seem like an afterthought from their electric archtop range.

TBH, I've always hated folk flat tops, I just can't stand their plinky prettiness, this is definitely an ideal acoustic for a Les Paul lover, both the guitar and the player.

Overall I reckon it's an absolute steal for 300 notes.

oh dear,  wont be on my xmas list then   - still enjoy  

not sure I get the LP reference tho...................

p90fool

Well, it kind of brings to mind some of his earlier swing sessions like some of the stuff he did with Bing Crosby, but its also pretty midrange-y like a LP guitar, as opposed to the more scooped tone you tend to get out of a folk flattop.

I'm just generalising obviously, but delicate-sounding it ain't, and its nice to be able to hear single note lead lines when playing with other acoustic guitarists

bertie

p90fool said:

 but its also pretty midrange-y like a LP guitar, as opposed to the more scooped tone you tend to get out of a folk flattop.

I'm just generalising obviously, but delicate-sounding it ain't, and its nice to be able to hear single note lead lines when playing with other acoustic guitarists

ah yes its the guitar not the person I was alluding to  

more of a 'accompanying rhythm machine'   then  rather than articulate picker ?   

Jalapeno

I think he meant the opposite - "Listen to me" rather than a picker.

p90fool

Yep, quite good for the ol' Django impressions, it certainly jumps out of a mix.