Lloyd Loar
Lloyd Loar Allayre ( born January 9, 1886 in Cropsey, Illinois, † September 14, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois) was an American musical instrument maker, inventor and musician. After a career as a musician at the beginning of the 20th century it was known in the 1920s through his work with the musical instrument manufacturer Gibson, for whom he worked as a senior engineer of the development department. Among his accomplishments in musical instruments include the transfer of manufacturing techniques from the violin to the construction of mandolins and guitars. Among his most important works as a developer for Gibson mandolin models include the A-5 and F- 5 and the guitar model Gibson L- fifth Another merit is Loars his research in the development of electromagnetic pickups for electrical amplification of musical instruments. Lloyd Loars company was founded in 1933 Vivi- Tone was one of the first companies that offered these pickups on the market. In addition Loar played musical instruments mandolin, viola and singing saw and entered as a musician with various ensembles in the U.S. and in Europe.
Work
Since the early 20th century Lloyd Loar was known as a mandolin player who performed with musical groups in the U.S. and in Europe and also wrote compositions for various stringed instruments. In addition, he had issued in composition and arranging classes. Prior to entering the Gibson he had worked for the Italian violin-making company Virzi.
Loar at the company Gibson
From 1919 to 1924 Loar worked as an acoustic engineer and head of the development department at Gibson. Since the beginning of the 20th century whose founder Orville Gibson had taken items from the violin for the construction of mandolins and guitars. With a view to further the purposes of Orville Gibson to improve the sound quality of Gibson musical instruments and higher quality instruments than before to offer, borrowed Loar additional design features of stringed instruments and transferred them in a partially modified form on mandolins and guitars. This includes the practice to levitate the end of fingerboards freely above the ceiling so as to improve its vibration characteristics. Also the pickguard of guitar ( pickguard ) got the same reason a "floating " suspension. Another distinctive design element is initiated by Loar introduction of f - shaped sound holes instead of the previously used in these instruments round openings in the ceiling. In addition Loar designed the first height-adjustable bridge for guitars, with the spacing of the strings can be changed to the body.
Developed early in his first two years at Gibson Loar including the Mandolin F -5, the mandola H-5 and Mando Cello K- 5th 1922 was followed by the introduction of an adjustable metal rod inside the instrument necks of guitars, with which the tensile load of the strings could compensate ( Truss Rod ). This enabled the production of thinner instrument necks that were more comfortable to play on. In April 1923, finally, Gibson introduced its new archtop guitar model L-5, which had been developed under the auspices Loars. A small part of the edition was signed by him on the label in the carcass inside by hand.
Similarly, Loar devoted at the beginning of the 1920s, research into ways to strengthen stringed instruments electric. One of his first known work in this area was the construction of a violin with electrostatically - capacitive pickups and solid wood body ( Solid Body ) in 1923. The practicality of this supposed first pickup for a musical instrument, however, was very limited due to strong noise. The reason for this was said to be its high resistance. Already in 1924, played Lloar for stage appearances a self-constructed electrically amplified bass and an electric viola. In the same year, Gibson parted from Loar; as the reason why it is assumed that Loars developments from traditional company Gibson as " too modern " were considered.
Loar then took on a teaching position at Northwestern University in Chicago and continued his research and experiments on its own continues. By 1933 he was able to develop a first electromagnetic pickup model to production. This pickup consisted essentially of a permanent magnet, which was wrapped with wire. The electrical signal is not generated directly by the vibrations of the strings in the magnetic field. Instead, wore a metal rod attached to the bridge its vibrations in the magnetic field. Early in 1933 founded Loar together with other former Gibson employees the company Vivi- Tone to market Plucked with his self-developed pickups. One of the few competitors Vivi- tone in the range electrically amplified musical instruments, the company was founded a year earlier by Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp in California Ro -Pat -In ( later Rickenbacker renamed). Despite intensive promotional activities Vivi- tone but the company's revenues fell far short of expectations, so that the production of plucked instruments at the end of the year had to be discontinued. Instead, Vivi- Tone began with the production of a likewise invented by Loar electric piano together with the associated electrical audio amplifier. This attempt of the company to enter the market by foot, failed.
In 1936, Lloyd brought Loars former employer with the Gibson ES-150 models (percussion guitar) and EH -150 ( " Hawaiian guitar " ) his first musical instruments with electromagnetic pickups out; the exploitation of research results Loars from the 1920s for these models can be accepted.
Lloyd Loar died on September 14, 1943 in Chicago at the consequences of a disease which he had contracted on a the YMCA ( the U.S. equivalent of the YMCA ) sponsored concert tour in France.