Page "Lloyd Loar" Paragraph 3

According to AR Duchossoir, Loar designed experimental electric instruments during his stay with Gibson.

Loar's views on the importance of the development of electric instruments were supported by Lewis A Williams, one of the founders and major stockholders of Gibson as well as its secretary and general manager.

Although none of Loar's original electric instruments appear to have been preserved, Walter A Fuller, who joined Gibson in 1933 and later became Gibson's chief electronic engineer, found some of Loar's original devices when he first set up his R & D lab in the mid-1930s.

He claimed that Loar's electrics had electrostatic pickups, but because they were very high impedance they were extremely susceptible to humidity.

According to Fuller, the pickups were round, about the size of a silver dollar and had a piece of cork on the back, by which they were glued to the underside of the top of the instrument.

Although it dates from after Loar left Gibson, Duchossior's book, Gibson Electrics, The Classic Years, features a photo of a Gibson L5, serial number 88258 of 1929, one of the original Loar-designed L5s, with fitted electrostatic pickup and factory-fitted jack socket in the tailpiece of the instrument.