Guitar Wishlist! - The Loar LH300

Jazz box time! (Is it a jazz box? Suppose that might arouse some debate). The Loar LH300 is an American designed, China built archtop guitar. It’s basically a copy of some of those old Gibson guitars that were around before the Second World War, with The Loar attempting to recreate the look (and spirit) of the L5. It is essentially an acoustic guitar with F-holes as opposed to a sound hole.

There are a number of things that I like about this guitar. However, I think it’s important to start off by explaining something. It may shock a lot of people but I don’t discriminate against cheaper guitars. The price doesn’t really fuss me about a guitar. I love the £100 Squier Bullet Strat and I love the £2500 Gibson J200s. I’m not really in a position to be a snob about particular guitars. Put simply, if they play okay and sound okay I’d like it!

The Loar LH300 is about £400/$500. It is cheap and I love it.

One of the reasons I really like this guitar is because of the body shape and style. I love that shape and style, they are so evocative of a time when guitar was really coming out of the starting blocks. It wasn’t a particularly well known instrument but this style was there. It wouldn’t surprise me if Bert Weedon had something of a similar shape when he was being quizzed in East Ham market about what the thing was in the late 20s or 30s! There are some guitar shapes and styles that everyone must have some knowledge about purely because of how important they were. I’d couple this with something like the Fender Stratocaster in importance of getting these pieces of wood with metal wires into people’s hands.

My experiences with this guitar are very limited. By this it means that aside from a few things I know nothing about it. There seem to be a lot of youtube videos, and I’ve watched nearly all of them. There seems to be a chap in America who sells them, he plays it in standard as well as DADGAD and he makes it sound great. He does some chops and does lead-y type stuff and I’m very pleased with how it sounds. Of course it isn’t going to be bob on that Gibson L5 tone, but it does what I’d expect that sort of shape and price to do which is what you want really. The reviews are good, with the largest complaint being that some of the detailing could be better, but it’s something from China and that seems a common aspect of these guitars, I can sort most the things people have complained about. Again, I don’t mind dodgy bits on cheap guitars; if they where to come out the factory totally 100% pristine with regards to attention to detail they wouldn’t be as cheap as they are, some people forget this.

And lastly, I can’t write one of these things without referring to a famous player. Unfortunately I don’t know of a famous LH300 user. I’m sure there is a really decent musician using this on stages around the world and I can’t wait to hear them. However I will go on about someone who got me on to these types of guitars. That man is Jack White and his use of his Kay. His Kay is like a silver-y archtop with a pickup in the neck. He plays his threw an amp usually, and I loved the sound of it but was more interested in the unplugged side of it. I loved the essence of these guitars, put simply. The bluesy sound was impeccable. With a bit of research I found the LH300 and have loved it ever since. The good news is if I was to buy the LH300 and loved it so much, I could go and buy a LH309 which has a p90 style pick up in the neck!

Sadly, the only problem I have encountered with The Loar LH300, as well as all other The Loar guitars (as I love the LH200 too) is that hardly anywhere in England stocks them. They seem to pop up on eBay and sometimes a random shop in York or Somerset has one or two but it looks like the best place to get these would be Europe (Thomann have stocked a few as well).

Peace.

SJ.