I was watching an auction of an L-03 with incredible bear claw.   Anybody ever see an L-03 like this?

(http://i.ebayimg.com/12/!BbWq8rQBWk~$(KGrHqYOKiQEq5B3VJT5BKvpnWyjdQ~~_3.JPG)

I was bidding on this one. Didn't get it. Nice top!!

too bad it is not book matched...
IMO, a nice bear claw top has to have a book matching top..

Quote from: es-335 on October 01, 2009, 09:14:26 PM
too bad it is not book matched...
IMO, a nice bear claw top has to have a book matching top..

Looks book matched to me.

Very nice top.

Yes - it is bookmatched.  The lateral "wave" of grain in bearclaw is not necessarily (probably rarely) perfectly perpindicular to the grain, so when you bookmatch the spruce, it will come out looking like the picture.

I think it looks great.

Hello to all, my second post but I've been 'spying' for more than a year :whistling:

So as the trardition goes,  :donut :donut :donut :coffee for everyone.

I am in the process of selling my OM03MH to get either an FIII or the new P03 with an italian spruce top. I thind the bearclaw on my OM03 was or is very nice as I love tops with an attitude  :?

As can't post any pictures, here is a link :

http://picasaweb.google.com/f2fanatic/LarriveeOM03MH#

Regards
Michel

Michel, I have a question for you about the bearclaw top. When you ran your hand over the soundboard of the guitar, could you feel the bearclaw standing up slightly or was the top just as smooth as if there had been no bearclaw? I ask this question because a friend has a locally made guitar with bearclaw and I was surprised  to be able to feel the bearclaw as though it was more dense than the surrounding timber. To try to clarify what I mean, when you sand a piece of cedar or Douglas Fir, with a regular belt sander, the softer summer grown wood will cut deeper than the hard striations of winter growth leaving them standing up washboard fashion, but I would have thought that the machinery used in sanding a guitar top flat would eliminate anything like, producing a perfectly flat surface. Or perhaps the guitar I tried hadn''t been finished properly. I digressed there, but my question was, could you feel the bearclaw raised above the surface of the top? With thanks, Lee. :smile:

Quote from: gitnoob on October 01, 2009, 07:03:37 PM
I was watching an auction of an L-03 with incredible bear claw.   Anybody ever see an L-03 like this?

:+1: wow!! that top "speaks" to me. It is beautiful - thanks for the pic.

That is an interesting top- very pretty. Looks bookmatched to me too, remember that one side will ne like the negative image of the other. I love the fact that Larrivee use tops like this on an 03 guitar.

Quote from: BenF on October 04, 2009, 04:48:31 AM
.. I love the fact that Larrivee use tops like this on an 03 guitar.

:+1: - I've seen some top-grade timber used in the 03-series - tops as well as bodies. The fact that the 03-series are made in a different facility and country, is a reason why they can use top quality woods which are available to them. I don't think they ship all the top grade wood to Oxnard which is a good thing. It is also a known fact that Morgan's (and I'm sure others that we don't know about) stock piles are sourced from the BC factory.
Other makers like Takamine and Bourgeois use bearclaw Sitka exclusively in their top-of-the-line guitars.

Nice tops on those 03's! It seems to me that they not only look special, but every bearclawed 03 I've ever tried just sounds better to my ear too. I don't see as much bearclawed tops on the 05s and up though. Are there any out there?

I recently purchased this guitar on ebay.  Still waiting for it to arrive, but when it is delivered I will let you know my thoughts.  I am very excited, this is my first Larrivee!

Clint

Quote from: clankershaft on October 06, 2009, 03:35:01 AM
I recently purchased this guitar on ebay.  Still waiting for it to arrive, but when it is delivered I will let you know my thoughts.  I am very excited, this is my first Larrivee!

Clint

Congratulations on what looks like a great buy - and welcome to the forum.  Please stick around and let us know what you think about it.  This is a good place to get involved in.

:donut :donut2

(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/travette/DSC03850.jpg)

Oh, nice one.   But that doesn't look like an L-03.   :smile:

Custom L-10 maybe?   Is that mahogany on the back?   Nice figure!

Quote from: leerichards on October 04, 2009, 04:24:33 AM
could you feel the bearclaw raised above the surface of the top? With thanks, Lee. :smile:

No Lee, bear claw is similar to "quilting" in that it's something of an optical illusion brought on by the cut angle and unusual grain formation.  You won't feel anything different about a bear claw top or quilted back & sides.  There are a lot of pix of quilted mahogany & koa around, and you don't feel what you see as ridges there either

That being said, I think unclrob could offer a service where he "converts" your existing guitar top into a bear claw-knockoff with his belt sander... cheap!   :tongue:

Thanks for the explanation, Roundlake. And thanks for the reference to unclrob too, but I have my own belt sander with which I can "bearclaw" my two Larris when the mood takes me. Come to think of it ,  CUSTOM BEARCLAW. A belt sander, some yellowish filler, a bit of varnish ... mmm anyone like to invest in a new business prospect?  I won't be competing with you unclrob, cos I live in New Zealand :bgrin:  :bgrin: Lee

I received the guitar about an hr ago.  It took 2 weeks to the day to receive this bear claw beauty.  I am so impressed with the sound and playability!  Very articulate.  The notes almost seem 3-d.  I can't imagine a guitar sounding better.  The next test is to see how it holds up to 200 shows a year.   This is by far the best acoustic instrument I have ever owned.   :drool:  :guitar :drool:

Clint

Clint -- Welcome to the Bearclaw Club!!!

Not sure what your experience will be, but I play every weekend and practice on Tuesday nights, which is only 100 outings a year plus personal practice, and mine has held up incredably. Now factor in that I've owned it 2.5 years, and that is about 250 outings total, or about a year for you. I'm sure you'll be singing its praise for many days to come.

Congrats, Clint!   That was a seriously good score.   There's an L-10 on eBay right now that looks a lot like your -03, but the price is about $3000 more.   :bgrin:

Jeez and I thought my L-03 had some nice bear claw.... think I've been well and truly trumped  :crying:

(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_IXUJdFhW1e0/St92WIoyBeI/AAAAAAAAAEU/U2-uo8nzxEQ/s512/L-03.jpg)