What A Long Strange Trip Its Been.

[little Jack]

Back in 1990 I had this compulsion to own a small body guitar.  At the time I was playing a 1966 Brazilian Rosewood D-21.  I bought a rather beat up 1927 Martin 00-18 that need quite a bit of restoration.  I did the unspeakable and had the neck slimmed down and had the bar frets replaced with jumbo frets.  The luthier also made a new pyramid bridge to replace the old straight saddled one.  While that little guitar was in the shop for about six months,  I still had that Jones  for a smaller guitar, so I traded the big Martin for a Larrivee L-10.  Back then they put a beautiful pelican and crescent moon abalone inlay in the headstock.  There was no abalone inlay in the binding, but there was a nice inlay pattern on the fret board.  That guitar was just gorgeous and it sounded like nothing I had ever played before.  I was going through a bad divorce at the time and things being as they were, I sold the Larrivee to pay off some of the attorney's bills.  When I got the little Martin back from the luthier, I found that I just couldn't get the intonation right on the thing. I tried messing with different saddles, but I think it was the jumbo frets that threw the whole thing off.  It just drove me nuts.  I traded the 00-18 for a Larrivee LS-05.  That was another sweet instrument.  It was small, understated, and powerful.  I   can't remember for the life of me why I sold that guitar, but I did.  Along the next ten years or so I got into a Martin buying frenzy and picked up a D-42, a 00-21NY, a 000-M, and an OM-1.  They were all fine guitars but they just didn't seem to fit me.  I sold them all and bought a Larrivee Rosewood Parlor guitar.  That was back in 2000, so it has no binding.  It's just a plain little cutey.  I've made a compensated bone saddle for it and I sanded the braces down from square topped to pointed ( /\ ).  The tone of this instrument is delightful.  I also polished out the satin finish to a nice glassy luster.  All that fussing around was done early on in my ownership.  Now I just enjoy play the thing.  Its my one and only and I couldn't be happier.
Bob