The Loar LM-600-VS

This is without doubt the best mandolin I have played for the money. In fact, it would be very easy to spend considerably more and get a worse instrument.

Straight out of the box, setup and playability were good but the tone and "bark" were such that with a full setup, I know it could become a great mandolin.

I am a trained violin maker and have been making instruments since 1975. I still work full time as a professional luthier in Nottingham, UK.

During setup, it became clear that the only slight criticism I had was that the bridge could be improved upon, and this was the only component I decided to change.

The tuning machines are of very good quality. The frets were well seated, with none sounding dull when tapped. They benefited from a small amount of levelling and polishing in other to achieve a really low, buzz-free action. The truss rod adjusted positively and worked perfectly. To find any finish flaws was very difficult. The fingerboard was a little dry and benefitted from some lemon oil, but this could be expected on any new instrument.

In summary, this is the first instrument I have rated with a clean sweep of 5 stars. If it had cost twice as much, I would have only given 4 stars for features, because the bridge could be improved upon... but as it stands, I will repeat what I said at the start of this review: This is the best mandolin I have played for the money.

I have been playing an Eastman MD305 and I was looking to upgrade to an F-Style.
Once I got The Loar in, I noticed very poor craftsmanship, the inside of the scroll wasn't sanded and under the neck the lacquer wasn't polished. The machine heads are really stiff.
But that's all cosmetic.

The real problem was the poor handling. The action was set a bit high, but it couldn't be lowered because the high-E was already rubbing on the 5th and 7th fret, ever so slightly but noticeable and with that relatively high action pull offs and hammer on don't really work.

Then another major pain (literally), is that the bridge elevation screws, protrude out from the bridge! And these little metal buggers scratch your hand, when you tend to play over the bridge a lot.

The sound is nice though, its a typical more resonant, F-style sound.

But handling wise my 250 euro cheaper Eastman runs circles around this and I bet sound wise an F-Style would be as good sounding as The Loar.

It's a pity, a little more eye for detail and QA would've made it a great instrument. Now it's just not good enough for the price.

Very impressed with this mando for the money - beautiful sound, lovely to play and so pretty.

I've compared it to some pretty high end gibsons as well as a top washburn and a michael kelly and it's well up there. Wasn't happy with the bridge so replaced it with a cumberland accoustic ebony version and added their "Tone guard" body cage, both of which noticeably increased volume and tone. Also added an internal K and K pickup.

A decent preamp, a modest string set up and you've got an instrument that you could happily gig with on any level.