I recently traded to get a Loar LH-309. It had some sort of D'Addario electric strings on it (coloured balls). They sounded absolutely awful. Add to that the very stiff action and an odd muting of the treble E string and I had pretty serious misgivings.
Changed the strings to Martin Retro (monel) 12s and spent some time adjusting the action to my liking and a week or so of hard playing and it's starting to seem more like a keeper. I need to adjust the truss rod (can't find the right size allen wrench in the house) and have a tech touch up the frets and it will be just fine.
The acoustic sound is fine but not very detailed. I'm hoping it will get more interesting as it's broken in. The electric sound (through a deluxe reverb) is a little raw but can be tamed with the tone control and amp. Good controlled feedback and very punchy sound in an ensemble.
One thing I can't understand is why all the assembly screws have slot heads. I hate slot screws and never thought I'd see a new guitar that used them. Strange times we live in.
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