The loar

After reading the raving review on this forum about the The Loar LH-200 and its status of AGF Guitar of the Year, I had a look at the The Loar website. There were more good reviews on the internet about this apparently very ambitious and talented Chinese guitar manufacturer, in particular from Jazz picker Paul Mehling on YouTube, so I pulled the trigger and got myself an archtop version, the LH-700. I bought it unseen at Thomann in Germany for a very modest price for a solid top & sides, carved archtop.

When I got it I did not have much time, so I had a quick look in the lights of our Christmas tree only. It looked like a handsome guitar, and after a few strums I decided that - despite some apparent flaws - it was a pretty good buy for one tenth of the price I would expect to pay for a good non-laminate archtop. Today I took the time for a more careful inspection. It did not take long before I decided to ship the guitar back to Thomann and request a full refund. This is the worst built guitar I have ever seen in my life.

I must admit that I felt little misled by JR's review and the other reviews on the web - no offense guys, and maybe I just had bad luck - so I felt I had to take the time to publish my experience here.


Here are my concerns:

1. The first thing I noticed when I got the guitar out of the factory-sealed foil was a massive dent in one side. Straight through the lacquer (can be easily fixed) and straight through the stain and the wood (cannot be easily fixed). This must have been caused by a major BOINNGGGGG in the factory and it amazes me they shipped the guitar nevertheless.

2. The butt joint of the side panels is not flush. Much worse: the center seam is off center by almost an inch!

3. The top underneath the fretboard is not stained or lacquered, just bare and unprotected wood. This indicates the guitar was lacquered after the neck had been glued on, which is bad practice. Much worse - and this one was really irritating me - is that the underside of the fretboard has been stuffed with some kind of crummy, irregular material, which looks like dirty clay or rotten wood. It is asymmetric and not even flush with the fretboard itself.

Here you see it from the side. The neck wood is flush and shiny up to a certain point, from where it tapers into a shapeless, crummy blob, which was painted black and lacquered to conceal it a little:

4. There is no binding in the f-slots. That is no problem, as long as the slots are sealed to prevent easy cracking of the top wood in case of sudden humidity changes. However, the inside of the f-slots has never been touched, not during the staining and not during the finishing. Some occasional drips are all that protect the wood. Very bad craftmanship!

5. The kerfing inside the guitar is clumsy. Here you see how a kerfing element broke off and the builder never bothered to fix it.

6. The fretwork was pretty bad. The frets were rough, but worse: when I lowered the action, some strings would buzz badly at one position, but not one fret higher or lower. Closer inspection showed the frets had never been leveled.

7. The top wood looked fine, but the "AAA-grade" flamed maple back is definitely not AAA to international standards. I wonder if it is even bookmatched. Don't think so - or maybe it is bookmatched, but they used two different books.

With a little more effort, and hardly any additional costs, this could have been quite a decent guitar for the money. The fact that The Loar could not manage that and produced this piece of [bleep], means that either 1. they don't care or 2. they are completely ignorant when it comes to guitar construction. Either one of these two reasons disqualifies them as a guitar manufacturer worth considering IMHO.

I may check them out again in a few years or so. Until then, I'll be happy to spend a few grand more for a real guitar.

I bought an LM 700VS about a year ago and am very happy with the purchase. I am really sorry about the original poster's experience with his particular guitar and hope its made right.

The quality of the several The Loar mandolins I have played (5 or 6 of them) has been very, very good. The LM 700 is unique in one design aspect (said to have originated when one of the violin makers there at the factory built the prototype to test.....) - there are no tone bars or other bracing under the top, it is graduated carefully to handle the stresses and have its own sound.

From the luthiers I speak with, tone bars and other bracing don't contribute much to support the top of a carved top anyway, though there are some who worry about this design.

Mine is delightful and fun to play, has plenty of tone and is loud. Exactly what i wanted. The fit and finish are just fine, not like a Gibson - but well done (many recent Gibson mandolins are flawless, Dave is the man!)

So, just a data point for this particular brand. Don't know if its all built in the same factory, but The Loar mandolins are, in the main, fine instruments. Stop by if you're in or near San Luis Obispo and play mine!

Clark