When I asked Jean if he would do a special
run of instruments for our store to celebrate our 30th anniversary,
I was hoping for both a small set of instruments from the Oxnard California
facility and a special series made in Vancouver ... never dreaming that
he would do both. Hey, there's no harm in asking right?
Most of you have seen the stunning Madagascar rosewood Limiteds that were
featured on these pages a few weeks ago. I am every bit as excited
to be able to feature this new limited run of L-03R-TF and LV-03R-TF guitars
made in Vancouver!
The thought process behind this series was
again, keep things simple. Don't mess with success! The
03 series is probably the most popular in North America in it's price point!
But hey, it's fun to tweak things a bit, so what the heck ...
let's have some fun!
Like the first series of 30th Anniversary guitars,
this is a run of five non-cutaway and five cutaway L-body guitars with
custom labels numbered 1 of 5, 2 of 5 and so on. Once
again I sourced these super precision 21:1 ratio Gotoh 510 tuners in the
brushed brass finish and shipped them out to Vancouver for this run.
There are simply no better tuners being made today! Again,
both bone nuts and intonation compensated bone saddles were at the top
of my wish list for these guitars and hey, I just couldn't resist
asking for abalone shell soundhole rosettes to add just a touch of bling!
I requested that clear pickguards come separately in the case to be applied
at the new owner's discretion and the icing on the cake ... Hawaiian koa
binding and endpin wedge custom made by Johnny Jr. himself!!!
I literally flipped a coin to determine
whether these guitars would have mahogany or rosewood back & sides
... I love both of these tone woods ... especially in conjunction with
Jean's proprietary symmetrical top bracing pattern. I literally cut
my musical teeth on Sitka/rosewood L-body Larrivee guitars ... I've made
them, played them, sold them and heard them after decades of
playing ... and as far as I am concerned they are THE best all-round steel
string flattop in the world. PERIOD!!!
How does the sound of this Limited Edition 03R-TF
Series stack up? We are talking the cream of the crop! How
could I go wrong with this tried and true body size with a couple of attractive
aesthetic upgrades, bone nut & saddle and the world's best tuners?
To top it off, the pricing is not much more that the regular series!
"Do something simple ... but do it well." I'm not sure about the
simple part, but there is no question at all in my mind that Larrivee
guitars are made very very "well" indeed! |
