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The Loar LH-309-VS Archtop Hollowbody Electric Guitar - Vintage Sunburst

Hollowbody Electric Guitar with Spruce Top, Maple Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, Padauk Fingerboard, and 1 Single-coil Pickup - Vintage Sunburst
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The Loar LH-309-VS Archtop Hollowbody Electric Guitar - Vintage Sunburst
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Straight Out of the Jazz Age

The Loar LH-309-VS is brimming with jazz-age style and high-class archtop elegance — all at a reasonable price! At the core of the LH-309-VS is a hand-carved solid spruce top that imbues your every lick with a lush resonance. This hollowbody’s maple back and sides offer a cutting clarity that gives your plugged-in tones an open, airy feel, while also allowing the LH-309-VS to double as an unplugged jazzbox. A custom The Loar P-90 delivers a versatile single-coil bite, and with a quick roll of the tone knob, the LH-309-VS takes you straight into old-school blues and jazz territory. If you’re looking for a vintage-style archtop with all the benefits of modern construction, look no further than The Loar LH-309-VS!

Hand-carved solid spruce top

The Loar LH-309-VS boasts vintage style and tone, so it’s not much of a surprise that even its construction comes straight out of the old world of electric guitar building. This archtop’s solid spruce top is hand carved to provide maximum structural stability and a stunningly resonant response. Whether you’re looking to chunk out some old-fashioned jazz chord melody or simply need a new acoustic sound in your tonal toolbox, the LH-309-VS’ solid spruce top allows this guitar to shine in unplugged scenarios.

Custom The Loar P-90

Plug the LH-309-VS in, and you’ll be treated to the smooth, rich sound of a custom The Loar P-90 pickup. While the LH-309-VS’s setup is geared toward blues and jazz players (a setting where it truly excels), Sweetwater guitarists find that this pickup covers a wide tonal range, and it’s especially reactive to the tone and volume controls. The combination of an archtop body and a transparent single-coil tone makes the LH-309-VS an excellent choice for rhythm applications far outside the realm of traditional archtop territory. If you’re really feeling adventurous, kick on the overdrive for some highly musical feedback!

Chunky soft “V” neck

Fans of chunky guitar necks, this one’s for you! The LH-309-VS’ neck is a veritable log of mahogany, carved into the soft “V” shape often found on many vintage archtops. Thumb-over-neck playing is effortless on this hefty profile, and players with larger hands with surely appreciate how it fills out your grip. What’s more, the natural peak found in a “V” neck makes it easier to curve your fretting hand around the neck, and it’s purpose built to conform to the contour of your palm. Finally, this substantial neck size goes far beyond comfort — because their design naturally requires more wood than a skinny modern neck, "V" necks are generally far more stable and resistant to changes in environment.

The Loar LH-309-VS Archtop Electric Guitar Features:

  • Hand-carved solid spruce top provides a beautiful and energetic response
  • Maple back and sides produce a dry, cutting tone
  • Chunky mahogany neck carved into a vintage-style soft-V shape
  • Padauk fingerboard in a flat, easy-playing 16-inch radius
  • The Loar P-90 pickup captures the smooth, elegant tone of the jazz age
  • Floating bridge with an ebony compensated saddle to mellow out your tone and enhance intonation
  • Hollowbody design gives some air to your plugged-in tones, in addition to offering old-school, jazzy unplugged sounds

Why Buy Your Guitar from Sweetwater?

See how Sweetwater goes to great lengths to give you the very best online guitar buying experience. From our online Guitar Gallery that allows you to see and select the exact instrument you want to our 55-point Inspection process and our in-house guitar techs, we take the guesswork out of buying your next guitar online.

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Tech Specs

  • General
  • Number of Strings 6
  • Left-/Right-handed Right-handed
  • Body
  • Body Type Hollowbody
  • Body Shape Archtop
  • Body Material Maple
  • Top Material Solid Spruce
  • Body Finish Gloss
  • Color Vintage Sunburst
  • Neck
  • Neck Material Mahogany
  • Neck Shape Soft V
  • Neck Joint Dovetail
  • Radius 16"
  • Fingerboard Material Padauk
  • Fingerboard Inlay Mother-of-pearl Dots
  • Number of Frets 19
  • Scale Length 24.75"
  • Nut Width 1.75"
  • Nut Material Bone
  • Hardware
  • Bridge/Tailpiece Vintage Loar, Compensated, Ebony
  • Tuners Nickel, Butterbean Buttons
  • Electronics
  • Neck Pickup The Loar P90 Single-coil
  • Controls 1 x volume, 1 x tone
  • Miscellaneous
  • Strings GHS, .013-.056
  • Case/Gig Bag Sold Separately
  • Manufacturer Part Number: LH-309-VS

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5/5

ES-125, improved

This guitar is great. Fat neck for large hands. Hard to put it down. Easy adjustability since it's an archtop, lower pressure on soundboard so heavier strings play lighter yet much louder (chunky rhythm machine). P-90 single coil sounds great through a '65 Princeton.

However, the value of this guitar is revealed while it's unplugged. Easy to practice quietly without an amp. Surprisingly crisp tone after playing a while. I've had it for almost 5 months as my daily driver, and the tone is opening up and I'm finding those bell-like resonances that are becoming more predictable and familiar as I find the chords and fingerings that this guitar particularly sings to. And that's what I particularly needed in my guitar playing and songwriting - something to help me find a new voice with unique artistic material.
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