My Loar LH-300 temporary detour

[dixiehwy25]

Before I go on, there is still a New York Epi in my short term future. I just decided to think about it a bit and get one after I file my taxes at the end of January.

Back in November I found a 2013 Loar LH-300 on Facebook marketplace that was just a few hours away. Finally, last week I figured for $300 I'd at least go take a look at it and give it a shot. I was pretty impressed with it when I tried it out, so I just went ahead and picked it up. It has a wonderful tone, and I wound up liking the action. It seems to me to be free of all the quality problems that the 300 had when it first came out- maybe that's because this one was made in 2013? While I have a "blonde" taste for guitars, the all black finish on the Loar became increasingly attractive. Having a pick guard was a plus as well.

Overall, I'm quite impressed with it so I reckon it to be a bargain. A pretty accomplished friend of mine tried it out and said it was basically a new guitar and loved it. The seller had told me that he really didn't play it much as it didn't really suit his style.

The big difference between this guitar and the LH-600 and LH-700 appears to be the laminated maple sides and back that the 300 has as opposed to the solid maple back and sides on the 600 and 700. The 300 also uses a rosewood fretboard while the 600 and 700 use ebony. It looks to share all the hardware with the 600 and the 700. Apparently the 300 was no longer offered after 2018, but they still sell the LH309 which, after writing Loar, has specs were identical to the 309 except there seems to be a difference in the fretboard material- and of course the surface mounted pickup on the 309.

I haven't had any problem with the "old fashioned" V neck on it. After piddling with playing the guitar about 15 years ago, I'm pretty much starting from fresh now so the neck is making no difference to me. I know there were a fair amount of people who didn't care for the V necks on the Loars, but I just figured I'd start with the most difficult one first!

[digger]

Nice! I just picked up an LH400 for small money, too.

Inexpensive way to try out acoustic archtops!

[Woody Sound]

RW board on black body looks awesome.

[dixiehwy25]

RW board on black body looks awesome.

Yeah it's got that Black Gibson Special vibe about it for sure. It's a glossy thing. Those are reflections on it- not scratches...

My cousin's husband found a near basket case Black Gibson Special several years ago when he went to an auction. it was hanging on a wall in a barn. He got it for a pittance. He's been gradually restoring it. I can't remember if it's L-30 or L-50 based. It'll certainly be interesting to compare the two guitars (with the Gibson's flat back vs the Loar's arched back) when he gets it done...

[2bornot2bop]

Congratulations on the Loar! I picked up a brand new LH650 2 weeks ago. They’re solid guitars!

[Doctor Jeff]

Beautiful!

[dixiehwy25]

Some things have been done to this guitar so I think it's time for an update.

The day after I got it I took it over to my cousin's husband. He's an excellent guitar player, has a great many guitars, and also does his own work. He felt like my guitar was okay as it was, but that it could probably use a few tweaks. In about a week and a half I could take it over to him and he'd check it out.

In the interim I practiced a lot with it and I noticed that my fingertips seemed to get unusually painful with it. I also noticed that the bridge was jacked way up on the low side and down to the stops on the high side. I thought that was a little bit strange.

Christmas Day I took it in for the tweaking. I said in the original post that it was a nearly new guitar, but he and I both found out exactly how new it was!

The truss rod was unadjusted. Just installed and that was all. He went to work on it, adjusted the truss rod, got the neck just right, and then we managed to lower the bridge so that it was something resembling even in the middle- and not on the extremes. He gave it an excellent setup which it apparently had never really had.

Playability is now excellent and painless. Just as I had read on numerous forum posts here and there, these Loars can be very good guitars but they need a good setup. I have also noticed that the frets are finished very nicely as well as the neck angle being correct. Outside of the work we had to do everything else about this guitar seems to be frankly, excellent.

If not being exactly setup- maybe the guitar had been ordered directly and never sent to a shop? Who knows? The finish is excellent, flawless. Possibly by 2013 when this guitar was made the factory may have managed to make some major steps towards quality control If not complete ones. The major problems with the early Chinese examples do seem to have been fixed on mine.

I'm happy as the clam and for $300 I think I got a nice deal on this archtop. But if one goes for a lower end Loar, I definitely recommend that they examine it in person rather than buying it just from pictures. Fortunately I could. It would make the difference between buying a bargain and buying a turkey.

[Jx30510]

I've always hesitated buying a Loar, because of the V neck a lot seem to dislike.. the nut width is a bit too wide for my preference.
But I 've found out with time that l can deal with any neck, and it's me reading too much forums and being influenced by what people dislike, more than my reality.
Before internet I didn't bother with neck shape, nut width, scale length, and all that stuff. I just played the damn things

The Loar QC thing scares me a bit, but again, we have return policies today (also unheard of before the internet business..)

So reading your NGD , you want me to pull the trigger once more..
You seem to have found a bargain!
Very nice guitar indeed. Congrats.

[Cunamara]

Before internet I didn't bother with neck shape, nut width, scale length, and all that stuff. I just played the damn things

Ain't that the truth! The danger of the Internet is that the things we think we like easily become more influenced by other people's preferences and what they think is good than our own, if we're not careful. Guitars, cars, politics, whiskey, stereo systems, etc. all show this trend strongly. The Internet and social media amplify the trivia and downplay the fundamentals.

[dixiehwy25]

I've always hesitated buying a Loar, because of the V neck a lot seem to dislike.. the nut width is a bit too wide for my preference.
But I 've found out with time that l can deal with any neck, and it's me reading too much forums and being influenced by what people dislike, more than my reality.
Before internet I didn't bother with neck shape, nut width, scale length, and all that stuff. I just played the damn things

The Loar QC thing scares me a bit, but again, we have return policies today (also unheard of before the internet business..)

So reading your NGD , you want me to pull the trigger once more...

Well, thank you!

The primary purposes of the Internet if I'm shopping is it tells me where something is, how much it is, and condition. I do look for reviews, and on this 300 it seemed like it was pretty much 50/50-, a toss of the coin- as to whether you got a good one or a bad one. With reviews also, it's also important to remember that things are pretty subjective. It's important for me to remember that what is like or not liked about something may- or may not- apply to me. Now if this guitar had been in Tampa, Tucson, or Tacoma I probably wouldn't have bothered with it based on things I'd read. But this one was less than three hours away and I could check it out pretty thoroughly.

I much prefer actually physically looking and trying something out or examining it. I am fortunate that I have a company car, so even if I go look at something and don't take it, all it costs me is my time. Even then I can make it a pretty enjoyable day trip by just shifting the emphasis. Since I can take a day to go and check something out, it opens me up to better deals- especially the pickup only ones. Often these are private sellers which means that I can skip extra costs like sales taxes and shipping.

I have bought two guitars blind online in the past. 15 years ago I bought an Aria FA 77 without even laying eyes on it other than pictures. There were a few reviews about it Most were positive but the information was pretty sparse (and still is). In this case it was the specs that really convinced me. I picked it up pretty cheap for a new guitar back then. It was a roll of the dice but it worked out, I love it. In November I bought the latest iteration of the Epiphone Sheridan Frequensator which had only been out for about a year and a half. It was on the Guitar Center site and in Texas. I had a hunch that I would like it but I also knew that with GC if it turned out to be a turd I could just take it back. That made things easier. It's a keeper, btw.

My experience with this particular Loar has opened up my thinking. I was pretty convinced that I would want one vintage Epiphone archtop acoustic. My original plan when I was thinking acoustic archtop was to actually go for a Loar since they're fairly inexpensive. But now I've come across some listings on a couple of the Korean Loars as well as a pretty recent 600. I'm thinking my newbie status (and bank account) might do better exploring those at this time and putting off a New York Epiphone until my cash situation catches up. There's also the fact that outside of a setup, a newer guitar probably wouldn't need much work if at all.

[garybaldy]

I've always hesitated buying a Loar, because of the V neck a lot seem to dislike.. the nut width is a bit too wide for my preference.
But I 've found out with time that l can deal with any neck, and it's me reading too much forums and being influenced by what people dislike, more than my reality.
Before internet I didn't bother with neck shape, nut width, scale length, and all that stuff. I just played the damn things

The Loar QC thing scares me a bit, but again, we have return policies today (also unheard of before the internet business..)

So reading your NGD , you want me to pull the trigger once more..
You seem to have found a bargain!
Very nice guitar indeed. Congrats.

I had read a lot about the 'controversial ' V neck on the internet but amongst all that was Jonathan Stout's opinion of the guitar as the 'next best thing' (again on the internet) so I soon got a 700.

[Jx30510]

I may try to purchase the LH700 one day. It seems overall very good. If I should fall on a bad one, it will just go back