Lloyd Loar Struck The Right Chords

BY MIKE ANGELL

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY   (investors.com)

The worlds of music and technology seem to have little in common. Musicians aim for the emotions while engineers look for answers that appeal to intellect.

Lloyd Loar was one of the few to bridge both worlds.

A prolific musician and a famous employee for the Gibson guitar company, Loar (1886-1943) brought the best technical knowledge available to instrument making, pioneering designs still used today.

Ahead of his time in many ways, his success came from dedicating himself to making his tools as a musician better and better. Loar's interest was in pushing musical instrument design to its fullest.

"He was one of those rare right brain-left brain kinds of people," said Jerry Goolsby, guitar maker and business professor at Loyola University New Orleans. "There are only a few people that can bring both sides together."

Loar's interest in music and engineering demonstrated themselves while still in high school. His main academic pursuits were physics and geometry. He also performed in local music programs.

As for further studies, Loar focused on music by attending Ohio's Oberlin Conservatory.

Prolific on five instruments, Loar focused on the mandolin for the sound people wanted at the time. Mandolin orchestras enjoyed widespread popularity in 1900s America. During and after his conservatory years, Loar played in various touring mandolin companies.

Coincident with the mandolin craze was a revolution in mandolin design. A musical instrument maker named Orville Gibson designed a flat-back mandolin, which was louder and more durable than the more common oval-backed mandolins.

As a live performer, Loar appreciated an instrument that could be heard by the entire audience and would stand the rigors of the road.

In 1911, Loar began his relationship with what was then Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., the pre-eminent mandolin maker of the time. Loar performed in Gibson-sponsored bands, wrote sheet music for Gibson instruments and advised the firm on products.

Loar became something of marketing and advertising guru for Gibson. He tailored music so Gibson-sponsored bands would spur audiences to form their own string bands. He arranged some 35 pieces of classical music for bands of mandolin, guitar and banjo players.

Loar went from making just music to making instruments. By 1919, Loar was designing the Master Model line of stringed instruments for Gibson.

Although Gibson's original designs were an improvement on earlier mandolin designs, most Gibson instruments were designed more for durability than for sound. Gibson historian Walter Carter says Loar wanted to bring the best practices in instrument design to popular but overlooked instruments like mandolins, guitars and banjos.

"He perfected elements of mandolin design like Stradavarius did with violins," Carter said. "His mandolin design has never been improved on by others."

Loar sought to meld the practical needs of performers such as strength and durability of the instrument and combine it with the need for better sound and louder volume.

Goolsby says Loar's likely motivation in making instruments was that he had peaked in his playing skill level. The only way to sound better was to improve the quality of the instrument.

"When you're an amateur musician, you are more constrained by your abilities," Goolsby said. "When you become proficient, it's more the instrument that constrains you."

Loar made necks longer so more notes could be played. He lifted the fret board off the top part of the instruments so the fret board could resonate too. Loar was one of the first to use f-holes — sound holes shaped like the letter f — common in violins and some guitars.

His main contribution was in tuning an instrument's design. That is, the instrument's wooden various parts — the back, front and sound holes — were shaped with the help of a tuning fork. A tuned instrument meant the body of the instrument resonated more precisely with the strings, producing clearer tones and louder volumes.

Not everything Loar brought to instrument making paid off. Loar liked a small resonator disk called a Virzi Tone Producer in his instruments. But the Virzi Tone accessory failed to catch on. Goolsby says Loar was willing to experiment when it came to making instruments.

"He was willing to take chances with his designs," Goolsby said.

Although he did not personally build the instruments, Loar was the final stop before Master Model mandolins, banjos and guitars were sold. He inspected the instruments and checked their tone and signed his name before they hit stores.

Loar left Gibson in 1925 due to what appeared to be Gibson's lack of interest in innovations.

It wasn't until after World War II that Loar's innovations were appreciated. Bill Monroe, the most famous bluegrass mandolin player, used a Loar-designed mandolin because of its volume and versatility. Earl Scruggs, another famous bluegrass banjo player, used a Gibson banjo based on Loar's design.

A Loar-signed instrument, which may have cost $200 when first made, fetches up to $150,000 today. Gibson still sells mandolins and guitars based on Loar's designs.

Getting Louder

After he left Gibson, Loar's work focused on how to make acoustic, stringed instruments louder. The advent of bigger bands with horns and drums drowned out quieter instruments like guitars and mandolins.

The only solution seemed to be to make bigger instruments, Goolsby says. But over a certain size, stringed instruments just became too difficult to play.

Loar sought another new technology to solve the problem — electronic amplification. While still at Gibson, Loar attached electromagnetic pickups to mandolins and guitars in order to amplify their sound.

Loar also came up with one of the first electrically amplified keyboards and sound amplifiers. His innovations led to nine patents.

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