My worst purchase of the year 2010: The Loar LH-700. Be careful!

[Picker2]

After reading the raving review on this forum about the The Loar LH-200 and its status of AGF Guitar of the Year, I had a look at the The Loar website. There were more good reviews on the internet about this apparently very ambitious and talented Chinese guitar manufacturer, in particular from Jazz picker Paul Mehling on YouTube, so I pulled the trigger and got myself an archtop version, the LH-700. I bought it unseen at Thomann in Germany for a very modest price for a solid top & sides, carved archtop.

When I got it I did not have much time, so I had a quick look in the lights of our Christmas tree only. It looked like a handsome guitar, and after a few strums I decided that - despite some apparent flaws - it was a pretty good buy for one tenth of the price I would expect to pay for a good non-laminate archtop. Today I took the time for a more careful inspection. It did not take long before I decided to ship the guitar back to Thomann and request a full refund. This is the worst built guitar I have ever seen in my life.

I must admit that I felt little misled by JR's review and the other reviews on the web - no offense guys, and maybe I just had bad luck - so I felt I had to take the time to publish my experience here.

Here are my concerns:

1. The first thing I noticed when I got the guitar out of the factory-sealed foil was a massive dent in one side. Straight through the lacquer (can be easily fixed) and straight through the stain and the wood (cannot be easily fixed). This must have been caused by a major BOINNGGGGG in the factory and it amazes me they shipped the guitar nevertheless.





2. The butt joint of the side panels is not flush. Much worse: the center seam is off center by almost an inch!





3. The top underneath the fretboard is not stained or lacquered, just bare and unprotected wood. This indicates the guitar was lacquered after the neck had been glued on, which is bad practice. Much worse - and this one was really irritating me - is that the underside of the fretboard has been stuffed with some kind of crummy, irregular material, which looks like dirty clay or rotten wood. It is asymmetric and not even flush with the fretboard itself. See next two pictures.





Here you see it from the side. The neck wood is flush and shiny up to a certain point, from where it tapers into a shapeless, crummy blob, which was painted black and lacquered to conceal it a little:





4. There is no binding in the f-slots. That is no problem, as long as the slots are sealed to prevent easy cracking of the top wood in case of sudden humidity changes. However, the inside of the f-slots has never been touched, not during the staining and not during the finishing. Some occasional drips are all that protect the wood. Very bad craftmanship!





5. The kerfing inside the guitar is clumsy. Here you see how a kerfing element broke off and the builder never bothered to fix it.





6. The fretwork was pretty bad. The frets were rough, but worse: when I lowered the action, some strings would buzz badly at one position, but not one fret higher or lower. Closer inspection showed the frets had never been leveled.

7. The top wood looked fine, but the "AAA-grade" flamed maple back is definitely not AAA to international standards. I wonder if it is even bookmatched. Don't think so - or maybe it is bookmatched, but they used two different books.

With a little more effort, and hardly any additional costs, this could have been quite a decent guitar for the money. The fact that The Loar could not manage that and produced this piece of [bleep], means that either 1. they don't care or 2. they are completely ignorant when it comes to guitar construction. Either one of these two reasons disqualifies them as a guitar manufacturer worth considering IMHO.

I may check them out again in a few years or so. Until then, I'll be happy to spend a few grand more for a real guitar.

Eltjo Haselhoff
www.eltjohaselhoff.com

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[ship of fools]

Thats to bad, its never easy recieving a guitar that you had heard nothing but great reviews on and I guess it all comes back to who really is doing the reviews or did you just happen upon a lemon.
But never the less it is disappointing to have so many things wrong with just one guitar and having the pain in the butt of having to send it back.
Well here's to you finding another that fits your needs.
And I guess it really does make you think to try before you buy or at the very least get opinions from folks who have had a guitar of whom evers in their hand and that you know and trust their opinions when you can't try one out.Ship

[sgoswami]

Pretty disappointing indeed and looks real bad. But what are the chances that it is just one bad piece?

[Picker2]

Originally Posted by ship of fools

Thats to bad, its never easy recieving a guitar that you had heard nothing but great reviews on and I guess it all comes back to who really is doing the reviews or did you just happen upon a lemon.
But never the less it is disappointing to have so many things wrong with just one guitar and having the pain in the butt of having to send it back.
Well here's to you finding another that fits your needs.
And I guess it really does make you think to try before you buy or at the very least get opinions from folks who have had a guitar of whom evers in their hand and that you know and trust their opinions when you can't try one out.Ship

I would normally not buy a guitar unseen, but this one is not easy to find and the closest one was 6 hours by car. With the current gas prices here in Holland driving up and down to Germany would cost me about the price of the guitar!

For the price paid, I was willing to take the risk. And I did not expect to buy a top guitar, but I did not expect this either...

But you are right - I guess the point of my message was: never buy these guitars unseen.

[Picker2]

Originally Posted by sgoswami

Pretty disappointing indeed and looks real bad. But what are the chances that it is just one bad piece?

I don't care. One such guitar is enough for me to disqualify them for the next 5 years or so.

[Brent Hutto]

Well, six months ago you thought there was no way to get a decent non-plywood archtop for anything close to that price.

Now you know for sure there's no way to get a decent non-plywood archtop for anything close to that price.

[mr. beaumont]

This isn't the first complaint i've heard about The Loar guitars in terms of QC, but the first I've seen so well documented.

Thanks. I'll stick with my old Kay...she's held up for 50 years, anyway.

[Picker2]

Originally Posted by Brent Hutto

Well, six months ago you thought there was no way to get a decent non-plywood archtop for anything close to that price.

Now you know for sure there's no way to get a decent non-plywood archtop for anything close to that price.

Ha ha ha... (who says Americans have no sense of humour ;-))

[ErikH]

This review would be a nice link on the other thread talking about the quality of American guitars as opposed to their foreign counterparts.

[lennylux]

Originally Posted by ErikH

This review would be a nice link on the other thread talking about the quality of American guitars as opposed to their foreign counterparts.

True, but it would also be a ridiculous generalisation. I'd stick my Gretsch prolines which are made in Terrada in Japan against anything from the US, including My Gibson custom shop ES335 and Fender custom shop Masterbuilt 62 Telecaster.

Pure & simply, It's the market it's aimed at. A cheapo archtop from China will not compare to a professional archtop instrument manufactured in China either but for the purposes of yet another thread to say how great the US is and how bad China is, I don't suppose that matters.

[Picker2]

Originally Posted by lennylux

A cheapo archtop from China will not compare to a professional archtop instrument manufactured in China eithe

I am partly in. The point is, that this guitar is not really that cheapo. No price discussions here, I know, but even for the money I think this guitar is a big lemon. For the same amount of money they could have done it right. Like I said - it's not the cheap labour, but either 1. they don't care or 2. they are completely ignorant. Maybe other Chinese makers are not - but these were.

[lennylux]

Did you bash Loar, or did you bash China in both threads this guitar is mentioned in? We all know their labour charges are considerably smaller but a professional instrument is still going to be a reasonable price, not in the same league as US manufactured prices but not budget prices which for a carved arch top this model clearly is a budget model.

your continuing the anti-Chinese sentiment that has been rather disappointingly fierce over the last few China related threads.

[mr. beaumont]

This has nothing to do with where the guitar is made--it's inexcusable anywhere.

This is not a "cheapo" guitar.

And on the topic of China, i've seen much better QC in Chinese-made Epiphone and Ibanez archtops that cost about half of what this Loar cost. Mind you, they did not have solid tops.

[Picker2]

Originally Posted by lennylux

Did you bash Loar, or did you bash China in both threads this guitar is mentioned in? We all know their labour charges are considerably smaller but a professional instrument is still going to be a reasonable price, not in the same league as US manufactured prices but not budget prices which for a carved arch top this model clearly is a budget model.

your continuing the anti-Chinese sentiment that has been rather disappointingly fierce over the last few China related threads.

I don't bash China or the Chinese, I bash my guitar. And I guess I bash The Loar, because they should have never let the guitar out of their factory, not even for the price they ask. And I guess I bash myself for having purchased this guitar unseen. Hey, I'm only human.

[guitarsanyone]

What a piece of junk that is based on what you provided us.....actually amazing because when I saw it was threaded as guitar of the year I thought to myself... that is ridiculous, it just could not be so. So I guess my gut was right on about that.