Loar LH-280

[lydian_dorian]

Picked this up from GC a few weeks ago. Closest thing to a Gibson ES-175 I'll find.

Questions:

It has light gauge roundwound strings installed (!) Were these what Loar put on their guitars? And if I were to remove the roundwounds and string with 11-52 flats, would I need to setup the guitar action from scratch?

The LH-280 fretboard: is it rosewood or padauk? There's conflicting online info concerning the fretboard material, and the Loar company doesn't exist anymore (no one to call up for info).

[2bornot2bop]

Don’t know if the 280 has a Padauk fretboard. Given that rosewood in China was fairly inexpensive in 2007 when Loar created these guitars I’d imagine it’s Rosewood.

My LH650 shipped with thin RW’s. I immediately tossed them out and went with a set of TI .13’s. You can use any string you choose. Yes, I’d have the guitar setup after installing new strings. But that’s a matter of preference. The bigger question to ask is your neck straight? Many of the 650’s sold with bad neck angles!