Pictures of Forum III guitars taken by John Larrivee during the build

[Randy_R]

1. Waiting to be sanded.

2. After the bodies are purfled and before the necks get rough fitted they must be stroked sanded and the sides ground. Here Willy is stroke sanding the top. When he's done he will flip it over and do the back. Operating this machine is kinda like rubbing your belly and tapping your head at the same time.

3. After stroke sanding John R. grinds the sides. This takes off any excess purfling and makes a nice flat side.

4. These necks are in the process of being sanded.

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[Randy_R]

1. Here's a neck getting the final touch. Next the dovetail will be taped up to prevent paint from adhering to it.

2. Now that the body is sanded and ready for paint, Don inserts a foam block inside the soundhole to support a cover that will block paint from entering the soundhole.

3. A cup lid is all it takes to cover the sound hole.

4. Don writes down the last four digits of the serial number for quick identification.

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[Randy_R]

1. This is Don. He has been working in the paint department for over 9 years now. He also happens to be quite the witty guitar player.

2 As mentioned earlier, the dovetail gets taped up to prevant paint adhering it.

3. These will be the first batch of necks to get painted.

4. A few strips of tape will also prevent paint from getting into the fret slots. A strip of double side tape will go on last to adhere the handling stick.

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[Randy_R]

1. Another multi-talented individual on the floor is John R. He has been with Larrivée for over 22 years. That would be since the days of the electrics in the 80's. John is mostly found in the paint department however over the years has spread himself pretty thick in the processes that surround him.

In this photo John R. is fine carving the shoulder profile on the neck. Using rasps, half mill bastards and folded sandpaper, he will create the final look and feel at the top of the neck.

2. Looking from the heel and down the shaft, cleaning up excess wood left over from the CNC.

3. This neck is being held down by a vacuum. Infact a lot of clamping at Larrivée uses this method in favour of hand clamps. This prevents wrist injuries and keeps things more precise.

John R. is also a well seasoned guitar player. He has logged many hours in the studio and on the road during the course of his playing career. These days John prefers to spend as much time on the green as he can, golfing.

4. Don has just started a pore filling a batch of bodies today. Using a sponge and a bowl of UV pore filler, he will evenly spread the filler covering the entire body.

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[Randy_R]

1. Protecting your clothes is a good idea when working with anything that is UV cured.

2. When Don is finished pore filling this batch he will take them to the UV oven and one at a time dry them. Sometimes this process can be done more than once or twice depending on the depth of the woods pores.

3. Pores filled and fresh out of the oven.

4. Just like the bodies, the necks must be pore filled as well. A common squeegee is used to apply the filler here. Whatever works right.

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[Randy_R]

1. Here's a half batch getting filled now.

2. Sean is our newest painter here and quickly picking up pace. Once he finishes the batch they will all be cured in the UV oven, then sanded. Just like the bodies.

3. Don is lending Sean a hand baking the necks. The UV oven you see in this photo is the generation #2 model. There is another one beside it that was the first. They were both designed and built by Jean and an older German metalsmith by the name of Clause.

Today there are newer versions of these ovens found in the California facility.

4. Once out of the oven Sean can begin sanding the necks using a pneumatic orbital, finger block and puppet sander.

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[Randy_R]

1. Sean is finishing up scuffing this neck with a puppet sander. It's on to get base coated now.

2. More nice mahogany.

3. The Italian spruce on Forums has been described as "creamy".

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[Randy_R]

1. Bodies...

2.Bodies...

3....and more bodies.

4. Last few fingerboards for LS's.

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[Randy_R]

1. This rack of necks has been sanded. Once they've been taped up, it's on to paint shop.

2. Painting necks takes a strong arm and a good eye. This technique can take a while to master. Sean has got it down to an art these days.

3. The spray gun being used is an HVLP gun. The paint lines are connected to a master drum, between wich are many filters to remove any contamination.

4. This batch is wet and ready for the oven.


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[Randy_R]

1. On to painting the bodies now. The matching necks and bodies are usualy done the same day. This way they can be put into the climate room(remember the climate room?) to adjust and be ready for final fit the next day.

2.The bodies are painted in pairs on hooks. No physical support necessary.

3. After base coating, the bodies will be UV'd then sanded down and put into climate control to adjust for the night.

4. Nice rack. Ready for UV.

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[Randy_R]

1. Think of the UV booth as a very intense sun tanning bed. The ultra violet ray's set off the hardener's in the paint and allow it to dry much much faster than conventional lacquers and poly.

Before Larrivée switched to UV cured paint, guitars would have to sit for up to three months drying on rack. That switch happend sometime in the early to mid 90's. This greatest advantage to this is much faster turn-around.

2. The rack on the left is ready for base coat. The one on the left has just been dried.

3. The glossy look. The boddies will be sanded once more and later on, satin coated.

4. Final sanding for this body. Into the climate room tonight.


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[Randy_R]

1. John R. sands off the shiney finish so the satin coating has a good surface to adhere to.

2. Nice top.

3. This process will be duplicated for the necks as well. From this point on the necks and bodies will stay together.

John's thinking about golfing again.

4. Just a few bodies left to come out of rough-fit area.

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[Randy_R]

1. Freshly carved and ready for sanding.

2. Patiently waiting to get home.

3. Sometimes a body or neck has to go back for a bit of re-work. It is then brought quickly back up to speed.


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[Randy_R]

1.Each dove-tail is hand fit using a very sharp chisel, a steady hand and a keen understanding of the process. At any given time there are only a few members at Larrivée who are capable of performing this task due to its lengthy learning curve.

2.Once painted and sanded the bodies go into the climate room for the night and relax to a climate that is strictly controled to 44%. Today Jeremy has begun the 2nd and final marriage of the neck and body.

3.This is Jeremy's prefered method of fuel.

4. Larrivée currently has a staff of about 40 people. Let me introduce one more of them, Jeremy. Jeremy has quite the sense of humour. He always has a positive attitude and never short of a witty joke or two at anytime of the day. As you can see here an idle camerea sitting on a bench is no match for Jeremy.
If you've ever taken a tour at Larrivée there is a 50% chance you would have been taken around by this gentlemen.

Jeremy is also a senior at Larrivée, 10+ years and capable of many different tasks ranging from rough-fit to fretting to fnal-fit and many others. A fine musician in his own right he can also be found at home building his own guitars. Currently he is waiting for a mandolin to come up from California.

* Jeremy gave permission to use this photo.

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[Randy_R]

1.Before the neck can be fitted the body dovetail must be cleaned out of any excess filler and paint to ensure a clean, snug fit.

2.Not too much but not too little is the recipe for this step.

3.It can take anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes to fit a neck. There ar many factors to consider while hammering out this process. Forward neck angle, back neck angle, side to side angle and so on. Jeremy will continualy check and recheck his work untill he is satisfied with his neck fit. On to gluing..

4.A few caul blocks, a couple of Bessey clamps and a bit of elbow grease will secure the neck to the body while it dries on the rack. Tomorrow the guitars go back into climate for another night before they move on to fretting.


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[Randy_R]

1. This time the marriage of the neck and body is forever, thank you Pastor Jeremy.

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[Randy_R]

1. Here at Larrivée we are very capable of tweaking our production to incorporate custom runs. Wether it's 8 guitars or 80 guitars our skilled staff can handle any number.
When doing larger runs, often new jigs are made to ensure every custom guitar gets the same treatment as standard production models. In this picture we can see a routing jig being designed for the 12 fret Forum guitars.

2.Once designed, a peice of plastic made from phenolic resin is used as the base of the jig. The phenolic is surfaced then contouring begins.

3.This piece of phenolic is starting to look like something you would find on a bench used for guitar building.

4.Assembling the two pieces is all thats left for this jig. On to the fretting room so these Forum III guitars can keep moving along.



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[Randy_R]

1.Meet Joe. Joe has been designing jigs, programming toolpaths and operating CNC's for ten years. Joe was schooled in this art by Matthew Larrivée before Matthew left for California. Working from a small office in the back, this guy builds jigs that build your guitars.


2.Two racks of guitars that Jeremy glued up and put into the climate room last night. They are all ready for the fretting room.

3.Ed is preparing the bench for railing. This is the first step before the actual frets are hammered in. The object is to make a smooth, clean, flat surface on the fingerboard.

4.Wes is starting on his first guitar this morning. Giddy-up!


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[Randy_R]

1.Remember this jig? Joe was building it earlier for this application. Wes is preparing the area that will later accompany the bridge.

2.This jig Wes is using serves two purposes. 1. it is a guide for the two index pins that will secure the bridge in it's precise location. 2. as seen here, for routing off the paint where the bridge will be glued. It is important for the wood to be exposed for a secure wood glue bond.

3.Tightening the truss rod before railing is a must. The neck angle will also be checked to avoid any problems later.

*Only a person with knowledge on the effects of adjusting a truss rod should perform this action.

4.Putting the three dots in at the twelfth fret to commemorate the Forum III guitar.



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[Randy_R]

1.Before fretting, the surface of the fingerboard must be prepared. The first step is railing. This scrapes off all excess ebony and fingerboard inlays. First a coarse grit then a fine grit is used.

Coming up with new ideas on efficiency and precision means coming up with new machinery. Unfortunately nobody builds these machines so it's downstairs to Larrivée R&D. Most were designed by Jean himself and have since evolved into state of the art machinery for guitar making processes.

2.After railing, an orbital will take out any grooves left from the railer and leave a much smoother finish.

3.Some final touches using a sanding block.

4.Ed sights down the fingerboard to check his work. There are very little tolerance levels in this job. Getting this right could mean the difference between buzzing frets or smooth action.


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