Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

Is there a bluegrass mandolin picker out who hasn’t heard of Lloyd Loar? He was a legendary acoustic engineer and instrument designer and builder for the Gibson instrument company, then of Kalamazoo, Mich. That was back in the 1920s, but Loar’s mark stands strong and tall today.

Loar-signed F-5 Gibson mandolins today are highly treasured, especially by the bluegrass family of mandolinists. It’s not uncommon to find them for sale in the $250,000 range.

That being said, we’d refer you to the latest edition of Acoustic Guitar magazine, which contains a great article, Loar’s Legacy, about Loar and his magnificent sounding instruments.

“Loar’s F-5 Master Model mandolin was the first of the new Style 5 models to debut, in mid-1922, and its violin-style f-holes easily distinguished it from all the oval-hole Gibson instruments that preceded it. The remaining mandolin family members were unveiled by the end of the year in a gag photo in a Gibson sales publi­cation called The Sounding Board Salesman. Under the caption “Bauer Quintet,” five musicians—each of them with the face of well-known mandolinist Walter K. Bauer—played the new Gibson f-hole instruments.”Walter Carter – Acoustic Guitar Magazine

If you don’t want to run down to the nearest five-and-dime to pick up a copy, the article is on line at AcousticGuitar.com.

Written by Walter Carter, the article is full of little known facts, including the comment that Loar never heard bluegrass played on one of his instruments. And, the fact that his L-5 archtop guitar was a sales flop when it first hit the market, leading to Loar’s departure from Gibson’s payroll. Never mind that the L-5 archtop guitar is still being produced today, longer than any other guitar produced under the Gibson flagship.