NGD - Loar LH 600
 

Just got one on one of those random price drops on the Canadian rainforest site. This is my first acoustic archtop, and I'm thoroughly impressed.

http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/...328_124447.jpg

http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/...328_124518.jpg

http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/...328_124740.jpg

http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/...328_124718.jpg

Weighs just under 5 lb. It was a little dry when it came in, but it's getting acclimated nicely. It came with d'Addario 13's, which I replaced with Martin 80/20 12's. I had to loosen up the truss rod a bit, nothing major, and move the bridge a bit toward the tailpiece.

A couple of sound samples (Blue Yeti mic):

https://soundcloud.com/bogdan101/loar-5

https://soundcloud.com/bogdan101/loar-4

Nice! I had one and thought it was great, just never got used to the hard V neck.

They are the real deal, though.

That's a beauty! I should get one but probably won't. Too many guitars already.

Very nice. Great looking guitar.

Great! How's the action? I have a LH-700 and had to bring down the saddle considerably, in fact I had to remove some material from it. Other than that I've been loving it, once I got it right.

Thanks, all! The action was too low initially because the guitar was pretty dry when it got here, and the truss rod needed some loosening. After about a week at ~ 50% humidity in the house it stabilized, although I'm sure it'll suck up water for a while longer.

Played with a pick, this thing is loud! There is some sort of natural reverb/echo kind of thing going on, and the treble is nice and fat as you go toward the 12th fret and beyond.

Very happy with it.

Cheers!

I picked up a 309 from a friend who owns a music store. It's taken a long time to settle in and has required some seasonal tweaking of the setup, but less and less over time. It's set up with D'Addario half-rounds and I'm pretty happy with them. Tone is like honey, action easy enough and the sound has been described as "soothing"...but a lot of that is the chord voicings.

I'll be taking it out tomorrow to play solo for a few hours for a Sunday brunch.
Finger-style chord melody arrangements (my own) of standards, raggy gospel and some Swedish and Norwegian folk tunes and '30's ballads. The room is not real big and the stage high enough to have the sound above the crowd. Usually about 40-50 folks. I only use a house mic to talk to folks and use a tiny Roland amp just to get the "electric hollow body" fat tone under the acoustic sound. No music over the PA.

The classic "what-to-look-for" list for prospective purchasers of carved archtop guitars...

Use it well and often... :guitar:

Congrats.
And now that you ignite the GAS, may I ask what is this rainforest canadian site where you find price drops on a guitar I want ?

I had an absolutely beautiful LH-700vs which I liked better than any archtop I have owned, including a '36 L-7 and a Heritage Golden Eagle. However, the heavy V neck started to kill my advancing arthritic left hand whenever I ventured up the neck. Although the guitar sounded great fingerstyle, it was hard to play. I played a Breedlove Oregon Concert which played and sounded great, so I sold the Loar, no looking back.

That period-correct '20s neck was a deal-killer for me as well, otherwise I would have bought one long ago...

Thanks; you know, the rainforest where you can buy a yearly prime membership... :)