Instruments and inventions show the story of Loar’s career
Ten special items from Lloyd Loar’s life and career are displayed in MIM’s new Lloyd Loar exhibit.
A new exhibit in MIM’s United States / Canada Gallery presents a collection of 10 special items from the life and career of Lloyd Loar, a noted musical innovator. Many of the objects were gifted to the museum by Roger and Rosemary Siminoff, who considered MIM the perfect custodian for these historic items.
Loar was a musician, instrument designer, acoustic engineer, and prolific inventor who obtained 15 U.S. patents for his designs. He is best known for his work at the Gibson company in the 1920s, when he pioneered now-iconic designs for acoustic stringed instruments, and he devoted his life to studying instruments and improving their sound.
Loar’s technical innovations were informed by his work as a professional musician. MIM’s exhibit features a collection of instruments that Loar played for audiences, including a tenor viola and musical saw. One special instrument in the exhibit has long inspired curiosity: Loar’s one-of-a-kind 10-string mando-viola. Loar designed the unique instrument for himself and played it extensively, including during a performance at the White House in 1923. This mando-viola has primarily been known through surviving photographs from Loar’s career; now part of MIM’s permanent collection, it is on public display for the first time.
Loar designed some of the world’s earliest electric instruments, such as this prototype electric viola.
At Gibson, Loar designed the Master Model line of mandolins and guitars to play loudly and clearly in crowded venues during the era before electric amplification. Loar’s most famous design was the F-5 model mandolin, which remains incredibly popular today, and F-5 mandolins with Loar’s signature on the interior label are rare and highly sought after. MIM’s Lloyd Loar exhibit features Loar’s personal F-5 Master Model mandolin, which has a label signed by Loar on February 18, 1924. Loar continued to play this mandolin in an ongoing quest for the best possible sound, even testing out electric components on the acoustic instrument.
Loar was also a pioneer in electric amplification, and his groundbreaking innovation in electric instrument design is represented in MIM’s exhibit by a prototype electric viola. Loar made the instrument around 1932, and it has surprisingly modern features, such as solid-body construction. It is one of the world’s earliest electric stringed instruments, and it was a prototype for the Vivi-Tone company, which Loar co-founded.
Other acquisitions featured in the exhibit include a prototype electric keyboard, a harpsichord action model, and a foot-activated special effect switch, a precursor to modern guitar pedals. On public display together for the first time, these fascinating representations of Loar’s work can only be seen at MIM.
The Life and Work of Lloyd Allayre Loar, $39.99
Read more about Loar in Roger Siminoff’s book The Life and Work of Lloyd Allayre Loar—available for $39.99 at the Museum Store! Shop in person or online at themimstore.org.
Lloyd Loar at his Gibson workbench, holding his one-of-a-kind 10-string mando-viola
