I've had my L-03R for about 10 days now, ordered from a dealer several hours away, so the guitar was bought sight unseen. Nice guitar. One thing is sorta nagging at me, though. The frets appear to have been filed, which makes me suspicious of past humidity issues while the guitar was at the dealer. I know from the serial # that the guitar is old stock, likely built in 04, and I'm assuming that it has been sitting around quite a while. Other than the frets, I see no indication of any issues with this guitar. It's pretty clear, however, that the fret edges are distinctly different from those on my P-05, which show no indication of any filing. Here's my question: Does the L-03 model ship this way (filed frets), or ever require filing by dealers after leaving the factory? Given what I know about Larrivee quality control, I'd be surprised if they shipped with rough fret edges. What other indicators would I be looking for to assess past humidity issues on a guitar? Am I just being neurotic about this? Somebody tell me everything is fine.
It may be that you bought from a high-quality shop that puts all their new stock through a rigorous set up. That's something you don't find every day. I wouldn't necessarily be suspicious about it, especially if the guitar plays fine now.
E. Shoaf
My LV-03K has the opposite issue. I wish the frets had been done.
I got the guitar right from the dealer who just got it from the
factory. The frets are sharp and have been that way from day one.
I keep meaning to have them done but I just can't come up with
a week when I want to be away from that guitar!
Stan
I wouldn't worry about it, since you don't see any other problems. (This is coming from someone who obsesses about humidification.) By the way, if you look around, you'll see old threads about sharp fret ends on in-store Larrivees, so it's not that uncommon. I got a guitar in similar circumstances a while ago from a store that didn't take care of the fret ends, and had to pay another luthier to do it. I'm with Ratishna - I'd be happy to have bought from a dealer who took care of this before shipping the guitar. Congrats on the new guitar!
I'm with everyone else on this. Be happy the dealer cared enough to do this for you.
congrats on the new guitar. Hows it play and sound? :WNK>
OK, I'm now reassured. A little bit of crazy making on my part, perhaps, as there is no other evidence of humidity issues. As a matter of fact, the dealer in question is a high end dealer and as far as I know quite reputable. If the frets were filed as part of their set up, I am impressed.
BTW, Randy, the guitar sounds great - I'm thinking, though, that a mohogany OM3 may be required as well. I REALLY struggled with the mahogany vs rosewood issue.
I REALLY struggled with the mahogany vs rosewood issue.
I have that problem too.... ^_^
A refret was done on my Pete as part of a neck reset. The new ones are nice and smooth. The old ones were a bit sharp. I'm with everyone else. It probably needed it straight from the factory, and your dealer did it as part of a full-service (difficult to come by in these days of "Music Superstores") set-up. Consider yourself blessed, and enjoy that new guitar.
Deb
P.S. One Larrivee is never enough. Didn't anyone warn you about that??!
My Larrivee Parlor needed the ends touched up when I bought it.