New Gear Review: The Loar LH-280 Archtop Electric

TheLoarThe Loar introduces the LH-280 (pictured is the LH-280C-BK model), an archtop cutaway with dual humbuckers and a 16-inch lower bout. Based on a vintage Florentine cutaway design, the LH-280 is a classic archtop but it’s great for jazz, blues and rock styles.

The LH-280 has a maple top, maple back and sides and two Loar humbucking pickups. You get 19 frets on a bound rosewood fingerboard and a standard vintage electric 24 3⁄4-inch scale. The 1-3/4-inch bone nut tops the mahogany neck along with Grover Butterbean tuning machines. The guitar includes a two-way truss rod and a Tune-O-Matic floating bridge.

The LH-280 sells for $499.99, comes with their lifetime warranty and is the latest entry in Loar’s archtop line; smooth clean tones alternate with heavy crunch all packed in a classy tuxedo of a guitar. More at: http://theloar.com/products/archtop-guitars/archtop-cutaway-lh-280c-bk.

By Barry Rudolph

miniBio: Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer with over 30 gold and platinum RIAA awards to his credit. He has recorded and/or mixed: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and Robbie Nevil. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and also teaches recording engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. http://www.barryrudolph.com