Question about Wendy Larrivee's Inlays

[JR]

I was in a guitar shop last week, and I saw a C-09 with one of Wendy's incredible inlays. It's the same design as the one on Randy R's website - 2nd from the left. <http://randyrick.us/guitar/intdex.htm> Does anyone know the story behind these gorgeous ladies? If there were already some posts discussing it, I apologize. I tried to do a search but couldn't find any info.

Thanks!
John

[ronmac]

Several of Wendy's designs are inspired by the work of Alphonse Mucha.

http://www.muchafoundation.org/mucha/showroom.php?rmid=7


http://www.charlesrupert.com/historictiles/mucha.html

[Tony Burns]

Wendy does excellent work - as well as john Greven - his naked lady headstocks are totally amazing .
I dont think Larrivee is  presently taking orders threw the custom shop - probably just trying to catch up on back orders for work !

[bhika]

The 12th Fret had a nice new inlaid Larrivee a while back, that they said was the last work done by Wendy and that she was retiring. Have not heard anything else about it, but it could be true, both she and Jean have been at it a long time and done a lot of incredible work. 

[dotpitch]

You can see some of the others that Wendy has done on the Larrivee Inlays page:

  http://www.larrivee.com/3_products/inlays/headstockInlays.html

[flatlander]

Here's mine. 1980.Don't think I've seen another Griffen. He's a good guy and protector of devine.

[flathead]

Flatlander here is a picture of my griffin it's on my 2003 D-05. It is the larger one  facing to the left. The other one ( which is more similar to yours) is of the only other griffin I have seen other than yours. I thought you might like to see them . I really like that they are different, it seems to make them more special, rather than stamped out copys of the same thing.

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[JR]

Flatlander and Flathead, thanks for sharing pics of your griffin headstocks. They're so cool! If I could have another Larrivee, AND they were still accepting custom inlay orders, I would want one like Randy Rick's Brazilian C-19 with the eagle head on the headstock and eagle feathers for the fret markers. It's absolutely incredible!!! Where's that drooling emoticon when I need it?! By the way, I think I made a typo when I mentioned his website. It's just http://randyrick.us/guitars. Randy, if you're reading this, you are ONE LUCKY MAN!!!

Cheers!
John

[flatlander]

Wow! You know I've seen very few Larrivees because of where I've lived in last 20 years. I figured she had a template type of deal for these inlays and that if I saw another Griffen it would look very similar to mine. But here we have 3 griffens that each look very different from each other! Is that typical of the other various designs?
Yea, thanks for sharing those flathead. Now about your name. I'm a dislocated cosmic hillbilly living on the flat eastern coast. (U.S.)  You can't set drinks on top of your head can you?

[JR]

I emailed Brian Trepanier a few days ago inquiring about Wendy's inlays. I got his answer today. Here's what he said:

"Wendy's inlays come from all different places and have a varying history (which is much too long to type). Each one has its own history; for example two of the figure inlays (Aimee and Emily) are actually Wendy's daughters (Michelline and Christine). They posed for photos which were turned into inlays. The names of the inlays are actually her daughters middle names. There is a good history of the inlay work on the Wikipedia site – Just search "Larrivee" and select "Larrivee Guitar Company" which covers some of the origins. Some of the designs are custom designs for people which became standard inlays. Others have gone through changes over the years .. I.e the dragon and the eagle have been re-designed 3-4 times."

Pretty cool info! I haven't had a chance to do the research as he suggested. I'll have to wait until tomorrow after work.

Best of all, I'm not a Newbie anymore! Now I can post pics of my L-09 MR
Unfortunately, that'll have to wait, too.

Cheers!
John

[flathead]

Flatlander, my head is not flat ..... my heads are flat. My ride is a 52 ford  all stock with the original flathead V-8 engine. Also I got in a discussion  ( good natured )with the owner of that other griffen that i posted, about who's was the meanest/toughest and he came back with the follwing picture hope you enjoy......flatheads for ever

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[flatlander]

Very cool car and I guess we won't be messin with your friends guitar. Yea I figured flathead had something to do with car.  Thanks for pictures. I feel a connection with my Griffen (Gryphon?) brothers out there. Hope they instill as much long lasting Karma to you and your box as mine has. Thanks again for pictures.

[roeslerm]

Hi,

I hope this isn't an inappropriate question, but with Wendy Larrivee's retirement, should we expect to see an increase in the price of existing guitars with her work?

--Merle

[JohnM2001]

Just curious, how are the inlays done?  I've always assumed that the headstocks are prepared by being cut out by a precision machine using a laser or something, ditto on the inlay material, and then the inlay material is placed and glued in by hand, before the finish is applied.  This one looks very intricate and difficult to do, with so much small detail.