More Than Just a Guitar: The Loar Acoustic Instruments Feature
Growing up playing music I always looked to folks who had expensive instruments as performers that really must be GREAT musicians. Otherwise, how could they possibly justify spending $3,000 on an acoustic guitar, right? Well, as time went on and I performed more frequently, in a larger number of venues, and with more people I very quickly began to realize that may not necessarily be the case. I was conditioned to think that the better guitar you played, or the more pedals that dotted the floor in front of your feet made you a better player.
My first big purchase was the first acoustic guitar I ever actually bought for myself. It was a Taylor 310ce when I was about 16 years old. I slaved away in a hot kitchen for the summer to get enough extra cash to buy it and each paycheck that I was able to pull an extra 40 or 50 bucks from brought me one step closer to it. Before this I had a hand-me-down Yamaha and a couple of low end electric guitars and this was my pride and joy. With its signature super bright Taylor sound, I thought that this was the type of guitar that I was supposed to be playing. The neck played more like a Les Paul than a dreadnought cutaway and I could never get much bass out of the guitar, but man, I was playing a Taylor so folks were sure to think I must be great. I invested in other instruments by the same company over time, and played that first guitar for about 12 years before coming to a painful realization.
As a quote from one of my favorite songwriters, and fellow The Loar guitar enthusiast Justin Townes Earle said in an interview with Acoustic Guitar magazine “I got tired of fans coming up and asking me what kind of guitar I was playing, and having to tell them it was a $6,000 guitar,” Earle says. “I wanted a working guitar, where I could tell people, ‘It’s under $1,000. And you can easily find one.’ So I just bought a Loar LO-16, and that’s what I’m playing. It’s a small-body guitar with a pickguard, similar to the Gibson L-00, and it’s loud. Really loud. It’s got a great balance, not too high and not too low, with a neck that’s wide without being super-wide. As far as playing goes, the string reaction is great, and there’s absolutely no delay. You strike the string and hear the note immediately.” This got me hooked on these small bodied instruments. So hooked that I blindly sold off my 310ce and with the used value cash was able to buy not one, but two The Loar guitars. The small body LH-200 acoustic and the archtop LH-309.
In my two years with both of these instruments I have completely fallen in love. Being a slightly smaller guy, the LH-200 fits me like a glove. I am able to throw her around stage a bit when playing. The neck and the action is perfect for pretty much any style of playing. Flatpicking bluegrass tunes, just strumming along to folk songs, intricate finger picking, or Travis picking out some old Leadbelly numbers…this guitar excels at everything and is super comfortable to play. The highs sing out beautifully, and when I dig into that low E you can feel it deep in your chest. It just has a wonderful range in its sound and tonally it is great. It sounds like an acoustic guitar, wood and steel. The way it is supposed to sound.
The second I took the LH-309 archtop out of its case and picked it up I nearly had a heart attack. Where the LH-200’s neck is a standard C shape, good for smaller hands, almost what you would expect on a strat or tele, the 309 had a v shaped neck. When you first pick it up it’s somewhat awkward and cumbersome, but within 5 minutes I found the shape was placing my hands into better positioned for the more jazzy style stuff and I could dig it really nice running through scales as well. The tone of it acoustically is exactly what you would expect and the guitar’s P90 pick up is great for jazz, blues, or just straight rock n’ roll clean straight through your favorite amp. Hell, I have even played it right through the PA for some acoustic duo gigs and it adds a depth that takes the songs to a completely different level and adds an interest to a set that otherwise would have been lost.
Speaking of interest, as far as tone, playability and sonic quality, I think you get that these guitars are top notch. But the thing that people always comment on the second I get the things out of the case are ‘WOW, that’s a gorgeous guitar’ or ‘man, how old is that thing?’. People are hard pressed to believe that the archtop is essentially brand new and not a vintage pre-war instrument that has merely stood the test of time. The thing they find most hard to believe is the price of these instruments. The Loar has been gathering more and more popularity in the past 2 years, their stable of fine musicians playing their instruments is growing, but 2 things remain constant: their commitment to crafting high quality instruments and keeping those instruments affordable. I think that is why this company holds such a near and dear place to my heart.
So, do you need any more reason to trade in for one of these things? Well I can give you a bunch. You don’t have to take my word for it, just look at all the fantastic songwriters and guitarists playing these things. To name a few, friends of the Red Line Joe Fletcher, Joshua Black Wilkins, Ron Gallo, James Maple, and Shakey Graves as well as Justin Townes Earle, Sammy Brue and Robert Ellis can all be seen toting these guitars around from gig to gig. So there you go, guitars that can stand a life on the road. Guitars that have many songs tucked away inside of them waiting to holler out. And guitars that can undertake a beating from some of the most talented folks that I know. Go play one today!
Oh yeah…they also make mandolins.
