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.