How did you discover Larrivee?

[ducktrapper]

I'm living in Montreal in 1971.
Eric Nagler (owner of Toronto Folklore ct.) comes to the Yellow Door to play and brings a couple amazing Larrivee guitars, one with an ivory bridge.

He's taking orders. $300 down, then $300 in 6 weeks when the guitar is finished.
I have an old D-28, I hesitate.
Eric's next visit through, he has an L that blows me away.
It's late 71 early 72 now. I sell the D-28, and give Eric the $300.

I'm also working at Rufus Guitar shop, as an apprentice, repairing guitars ( I was building dulcimers before then).
Jean comes to town to visit Rufus, and buys our table router.
I tell him about my guitar order, he says it's almost done.
We strike a deal where I deliver the table router to Jean's shop, and pick up my guitar.
I sold that one to an amazing player who just HAD to have it.
I've had several since then, including the BZ L duck trapper owns.

I still have several, including the first one Jean ever built.
I don't have a scout shirt with a lot of badges.
I just have 45 years of Larrivee history under my belt.

AND I can still remember when Mariposa Folk Festival was held on Centre Island.
Several of us chuckled one year to see a very very young boy with a sign on the back of his shirt that said.
"my name is Matt, if i'm lost, find Jean Jean Larrivee"

really, you can't make this crap up!

And then a young guy from Thunder Bay, in Montreal with his girlfriend, trying to be folksingers, admiring these new Larrivée guitars that are popping up everywhere, finds a beautiful '75 L being sold on consignment at Rufus's. Thanks for letting her go Kev! 

[Mikeymac]

And then a young guy from Thunder Bay, in Montreal with his girlfriend, trying to be folksingers, admiring these new Larrivée guitars that are popping up everywhere, finds a beautiful '75 L being sold on consignment at Rufus's. Thanks for letting her go Kev! 

Great stories!

[Larrivee4me]

My wife and I were at a BMW motorcycle rally in Peonia Colorado.  The whole group, a couple hundred at least,  were camped out in the town park which is irrigated and had huge shade trees and green grass.  A bit of an oasis in contrast to the usual scenery around there.  Friday evening I had my tin whistle out and was working on a couple tunes.  In the distance I heard a fiddle tuning and then some Irish tunes.  Too good to be true so of course I went in search of the fiddler.  He and his motocycling friend,  a guitarist and singer were part of a local Irish band.  The guitarist was playing a Larrivee parlor,  one of the very early mahogany ones with no binding.  He was quite good as was the fiddler.  They graciously allowed me to join in on a couple tunes that I knew.  Later I got a chance to play the Larrivee parlor.  I knew nothing about Larrivee guitars up until then but recognized the quality built into this small guitar.
When we got home to Ohio I found Wildwood Music in Coshocton carried them and soon I owned a L-09.  I've owned four other Larrivees since then.  A very special 1995 OM-19 is the best so far.

[broKen]

My "story" is as dull as a cheap stainless knife. A player on the Seagull forum (what I played at the time) said he was trading in his Seagull for a Larrivee. So I found this forum to learn about them and a year later bought my oo-03r. Thanks to many of you, I might have been playing a martin.   

[Danny]

     Been trying to remember how Larrivee came into my view. I'm pretty sure the first time I saw a few was at a fine used guitar shop in South Austin. They had a sunburst model and that really grabbed my attention. So I went online and found the Larrivee catalog. The prices were all full retail and I didn't know any better at the time, so I thought Larrivee was just out of my league.
      But I took a look in the newspaper classifieds and amazingly enough there was a Larrivee for sale there. A drummer who used to work at a music store in Louisiana had a new old stock LV-03R. It didn't have the maple binding, but other than that it was in fine shape and priced to sell. So I got it and that was the first of the fourteen Larrivees I've had.

                           Still haven't had a sunburst model though. (someday )

[katrinalotus]

I remember my first Larrivee encounter well. I was in a music store in Kentucky with my daughter and we ventured in to the acoustic guitar area. She says " I really like that little guitar up there and it's just my size." I look up and see that it is a Larrivee P-09. I have heard of Larrivee from word of mouth but had never seen one in person before. I picked it up and started to play it and was instantly hooked. My daughter then says "you can buy it and say that it was for me." I told her as much as I would like to buy it I can't cause her mom would kill me seeing me come out of the store with a guitar. I went home and thought about it constantly. Shortly thereafter I ended up buying a custom P-03 from Wildwood Music and have just added on since. Currently I have 8 soon to be 9 Larrivees. Momma didn't kill me after all.

[JOYCEfromNS]

I remember my first Larrivee encounter well. I was in a music store in Kentucky with my daughter and we ventured in to the acoustic guitar area. She says " I really like that little guitar up there and it's just my size." I look up and see that it is a Larrivee P-09. I have heard of Larrivee from word of mouth but had never seen one in person before. I picked it up and started to play it and was instantly hooked. My daughter then says "you can buy it and say that it was for me." I told her as much as I would like to buy it I can't cause her mom would kill me seeing me come out of the store with a guitar. I went home and thought about it constantly. Shortly thereafter I ended up buying a custom P-03 from Wildwood Music and have just added on since. Currently I have 8 soon to be 9 Larrivees. Momma didn't kill me after all.

Gotta luv Momma!!!!!

[bigbluesdaddy]

I had just sold an old Fender electric to a friend of mine and I wanted to buy a nice all wood acoustic guitar, after looking at some Martin and Taylors I felt they just weren't special enough to replace the guitar I just sold, then I remembered my wifes uncle mentioned before that larrivee makes a real nice guitar, so the search began, not a lot of dealers in the area, closest was over an hour away, and only some standard models, so I thought I would look around online to see what I could find before I made the drive, then I found this place down in ohio, Wildwood music, they had some Wildwood customs that were a step above your basic 03 standards, Talked to Don and Marty a few times, they sent me tons of pics and told me if I buy one they would give me a trial period to see if I liked the guitar, so I bought the guitar without even playing it, not something I normally do, but once I got it, looked it over and played it, I new it was the right choice, my friends who play Martins and Taylors couldn't believe the guitar I got for the money I payed, and the sound it produced with the alpine spruce top....doesn't get any better than that...