MR
Setup was not good, otherwise.
This guitar required a full setup and fret dress in order to make it playable. Otherwise it was okay for the comparatively low cost. The pickup was fairy characterless as was to be expected but not bad. The electronics felt quite budget as well, especially the pots. Plus point was the neck profile and the quality of the Waverley-style tuners.
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A
The Loar; LH 309 SV, You Get What You Pay For...
I was eagerly anticipating this beautiful looking arch top with what seemed to be all the vibe of the 1930's in a very affordable instrument.
Read and viewed quite a bit before I ordered it...
When it arrived, right out of the box I could see that I was going to need to put in another 50 to 75 bucks to have worked on this to get it playable by professional standards.
Very poor fret work (like strings against a rusty fence).
Totally unbalanced and uneven floating bridge work.
Essentially no kind of set up whatso ever...
Then when I tried to put a guitar strap on, the wooden end pin/strap button literally crumbled and broke in a bunch of pieces the moment I touched it (could have been affected in shipping process).
When I shook the guitar, ther was a very large amount of wood scraps and sawdust inside (looked like a snow storm when I tried to get most of it out).
Suddenly on closer inspection I noticed and realized that the carved top, which was supposed to be solid was in fact in two pieces BUT the back was a solid one piece.
This must have been a big manufacture error and they cut the F-holes on the wrong side.
Does it feel good to play and sound good? It's pretty fair, especially for this price.
But you get what you pay for, and that means practically a step up from a "do it yourself" guitar building kit.
The problem is; it is so cheap that what I complained and set in motion to order/replace the new end pin that was broken, it turns out to be much more or a hassle than the guitar is probably worth to even send back!
I am a professional working/touring musician and I was looking for an inexpensive guitar with a good vibe and acoustic/electric crossover possibilities for workshops and smaller gigs.
This was a bit too good to be true...
I would have actually paid a little more if someone had put a bit more of a personal touch Into this guitar before sending off to the distributor.
I will keep this LH 309 VS for now and dump some more money into a proper set up and to fix the bugs.
Maybe pass on to a student.
It's a good entry level guitar to the world of arch tops that get closer to the sound and feel of anything in this rock bottom price range.
But not a whole lot more...
Read and viewed quite a bit before I ordered it...
When it arrived, right out of the box I could see that I was going to need to put in another 50 to 75 bucks to have worked on this to get it playable by professional standards.
Very poor fret work (like strings against a rusty fence).
Totally unbalanced and uneven floating bridge work.
Essentially no kind of set up whatso ever...
Then when I tried to put a guitar strap on, the wooden end pin/strap button literally crumbled and broke in a bunch of pieces the moment I touched it (could have been affected in shipping process).
When I shook the guitar, ther was a very large amount of wood scraps and sawdust inside (looked like a snow storm when I tried to get most of it out).
Suddenly on closer inspection I noticed and realized that the carved top, which was supposed to be solid was in fact in two pieces BUT the back was a solid one piece.
This must have been a big manufacture error and they cut the F-holes on the wrong side.
Does it feel good to play and sound good? It's pretty fair, especially for this price.
But you get what you pay for, and that means practically a step up from a "do it yourself" guitar building kit.
The problem is; it is so cheap that what I complained and set in motion to order/replace the new end pin that was broken, it turns out to be much more or a hassle than the guitar is probably worth to even send back!
I am a professional working/touring musician and I was looking for an inexpensive guitar with a good vibe and acoustic/electric crossover possibilities for workshops and smaller gigs.
This was a bit too good to be true...
I would have actually paid a little more if someone had put a bit more of a personal touch Into this guitar before sending off to the distributor.
I will keep this LH 309 VS for now and dump some more money into a proper set up and to fix the bugs.
Maybe pass on to a student.
It's a good entry level guitar to the world of arch tops that get closer to the sound and feel of anything in this rock bottom price range.
But not a whole lot more...
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