Disappointed in the Loar Mandolins

[CES]

No dog in the fight, either...I've played one of their arch top guitars, a 520, and a 700. The 700 was bordering on par with my Silverangel econo in tone and playability (ie, I really liked it). The 520 and the arch top left me a bit cold.

I can't stand the name, either, but if I were on a limited budget, I'd consider them along with Kentucky and Bovier...

[Frank Farley]

I've owned 2 LM600VS The Loar mandolins and the first one was a great instrument and the second was a good one. When they are set up properly I really like them. I have played a whole host of their other mandolin models and there hasn't been a dog in the bunch that I played. I wouldn't care at all to own another The Loar.

[MikeEdgerton]

If it's long-lived, that's because it's a subject that holds significant interest for Cafe members. Whether or not the OP has posted recently seems irrelevant.

Go back and check the dates and the posts. Now count the number of people posting that actually claim to have owned one and had problems.

[Petrus]

Tangentially, may I mention (apropos of several posts) my pet peeve about using "Pac Rim" as a synonym for Asian. Mention the specific country involved. Otherwise, "Pac Rim" includes California, Peru, etc.

[Mike Bunting]

Tangentially, may I mention (apropos of several posts) my pet peeve about using "Pac Rim" as a synonym for Asian. Mention the specific country involved. Otherwise, "Pac Rim" includes California, Peru, etc.

Canada (Heiden), Australia (Gilchrist) I'd include Paul Duff in Perth there too but he says that he's really Indian Ocean Rim. So three of the greatest builders in the world are PacRim builders so generalizing like this is sort of pointless.

[Dagger Gordon]

Hey guys, lighten up a bit.

Go and play your mandolins and have some fun!

[Bernie Daniel]

Go back and check the dates and the posts. Now count the number of people posting that actually claim to have owned one and had problems.

In fact, go back and read posts three and you have almost the whole story of this long (time and words) string.

One person has a problem with a The Loar it goes back and is replaced (apparently with no out of pocket costs?) with a different instrument.

Then in next two posts men who sell many of these mandolins every week (and have been doing that quite a while) tell you they seldom has problems with this brand -- especially compared to other brands that they also sell and that the company stands by the warranty.

No brand is perfect and yes the name grates on me too (different story though) -- IMO thread kind of got carried away -- and I helped with that!

[Pete Jenner]

No brand is perfect

Pagans are perfect! ...almost.

No not really - I lied. *hangs head in shame*

[jesserules]

I just object to the posts attempting to get this thread shut down. If somebody has a legitimate gripe, let him air it. And if other people have had completely different experiences with the brand, let them speak up.

[MikeEdgerton]

Threads rarely get shut down because someone wants it shut down.

[Lou Giordano]

Pagans are perfect! ...almost.

No not really - I lied. *hangs head in shame*

Religious content?

[Pete Jenner]

Religious content?

No it's a brand name - just like 'The Loar'.

[tkdboyd]

Pagans are perfect! ...almost.

No not really - I lied. *hangs head in shame*

Well they do look really nice even if they are not perfect, I certainly wouldn't burn one at the stake!

[Perry Babasin]

Personally I find it more helpful to see threads extolling the virtues of brand X, Y or Z. I myself have a fabulous brand X, a wonderful brand Y, and I am nearly finished with a renovated brand Z.

Play what you can afford and enjoy the heck out of it... I did search the archives and apparently cracks in the top seem to be a common occurrence in carved top instruments, particularly mandolins. Seems to cut across all price ranges and builders and manufacturers.

Oh an my avatar is a "The Loar" 600 in a former life...

[allenhopkins]

...No brand is perfect...

Except for Shmergel. The Devastator is flawless.

[GreenMTBoy]

OK here it goes ....I feel like I'm going to confession.
Please forgive me ,I own a The Loar 700 ,I play it everyday even on Sunday .
I love it ,It sounds great to me ,I think it's pretty nice looking ! not particularly fond of the name ...maybe I'll put some electric tape over it ? I wish I could make one as good .Thank you people of China for keeping things affordable for us .
I bought it cheap as a second although I can't find any problems with it .
I had a pro set up done to it and a CA bridge and a james tailpiece installed at that same time ,bought a real nice Ebony TRC from Doug .Great Mandolin for under a grand.
Some day I might have the money to afford a better Mandolin but until I do this one is just fine .

[Richard58]

Just enjoy playing what you got to pick and be thankful you have the good enough health to play..

[Kevin Stevens]

OK here it goes ....I feel like I'm going to confession.
Please forgive me ,I own a The Loar 700 ,I play it everyday even on Sunday .
I love it ,It sounds great to me ,I think it's pretty nice looking ! not particularly fond of the name ...maybe I'll put some electric tape over it ? I wish I could make one as good .Thank you people of China for keeping things affordable for us .
I bought it cheap as a second although I can't find any problems with it .
I had a pro set up done to it and a CA bridge and a james tailpiece installed at that same time ,bought a real nice Ebony TRC from Doug .Great Mandolin for under a grand.
Some day I might have the money to afford a better Mandolin but until I do this one is just fine .

Sounds exactly like my experience. I bought a 700 second, sent it off to Steve Smith for a CA bridge, Allen tailpiece, and an excellent setup, and it is a great mando. Does it sound as good as the Weber or the Gibson F-4? No, but it certainly sounds great and is a pleasure to play, at a fraction of what the others cost. 1 person out of a hundred, if that, will know the significance, or perhaps the notoriety of the name. In the end I have a great mando that I am not afraid to take out of the house.

[Samuel David Britton]

Personally, I don't really care what the name is on the headstock. A mandolin should be judged on its build quality and sound.

[mandotim1955]

I had a fun time last night. I've watched the various threads about 'The Loar' mandolins, but they are quite rare here in the UK, and I hadn't played one until last night. It was the 700 model I think, with the Fern look-a-like appointments. I happened to have my Fern with me, so it made for an interesting comparison. The Loar was nicely made, although the scroll didn't 'go all the way round' in this case. Some nice woods used, but with a much heavier finish than on the Gibson. The action and intonation were fine, and the neck was similar to my Rigel; a bit 'baseball bat', and very different from the slim V shape of the Gibson. Still a very playable instrument. We swapped for a couple of tunes, and I immediately found a problem. The Loar just didn't have the volume or cutting power in a picking session, even when I really dug in. I'm a loud player who gets asked to back off by banjo players, and I was struggling to get a break heard. The tone lacked bass, sounding thin and reedy; ok for Celtic tunes at a pinch, but no real use for bluegrass. I have an old Korean made 'Ozark' F-style, probably from the Samick factory, and it's twice the instrument that this particular Loar was. Not as pretty, but a much better tone and volume. For me, this is the rub with this mandolin; a lot of time and effort has gone into making it look like a high-end bluegrass machine, and not enough time spent focusing on getting acceptable tone and volume. This isn't 'Gibson snobbery' by the way; I was discounting for the discrepancy in cost between the two, and didn't expect the Loar to be as good as the Gibson; what I didn't expect was the size of the gap. It may be that I played a poor example, but I was distinctly unimpressed.

[AlanN]

There you have it. Form over Function. The 2 or 3 I've played struck me as similar: fancy and shiny, neck like a baseball bat, thin tone.

[houseworker]

I've had nothing but bad experiences with them.

It's difficult to know quite what lies behind Adam Sweet's reviving of a thread that had gone nearly four years without a post. It's not as if there's any consistency to his opinions; in 2012 he told us that

I really liked the Loars I've seen so far, highly playable

[AlanN]

Busted!!

[ccravens]

Goodness!

That was SOME catch by houseworker. Props.

I'm wondering how much time he put into the investigation, and why. See this thing really has many layers!



It's like "As the Mando World Turns" around here.

[nickster60]

This whole pac-rim business is just political correctness and agree really makes no sense. I guess ukuleles made in Hawaii are pac-rim instruments. Its like the term Asian American, Asia is a huge Continent from Siberia to Indonesia and most of the Middle East. A geography lesson may be in order.