A look at a1925 Gibson Lloyd Loar. Alan Bond's Mandolin Museum.

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Gibson Lloyd Loar F-5
Gibson Master model made between 1922 and 1924,
the Loar style-5 series of instruments bear the dated signature of Lloyd Allayre Loar.



Lloyd Loar
Picture courtesy Roger H. Siminoff

1923 Lloyd Loar F-5

Unknown man holding a Lloyd Loar F-5 mandolin.
Copyright Alan M. Bond©.
In 1922 a brilliant acoustic engineer named Lloyd Loar developed the Mastermodel series of acoustic instruments and invented the first solidbody electric viola. Loar was the architect of the modern stringed instrument.

A virtuoso classical mandolinist and acoustical engineer, Lloyd Loar joined Gibson in 1919, a year after Orville's death. Loar's refinements of Orville's orginal carving concepts brought about the Master Model F-5 mandolin and L-5 guitar, with tuned tops and backs and the first "f" holes ever found on fretted instruments. The F-5 was quickly judged the finest mandolin ever built, while the L-5, in the hands of players like Eddie Lang, became the first guitar to take a serious role in the orchestra. It quickly replaced the tenor banjo as a rhythm instrument and became the basis for Gibson's dominance in the new field of arch top guitars.

1924 F-5 signed Loar