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

[Randy_R]

1.Ed has been with Larrivée almost 15 years now. A fine luthier in his own right, this guy is a stickler for perfection... ask anybody that works here!

2.No fret press here at Larrivée. Starting from the bottom up, one by one the frets are hand hammered in.

3.Ed, leaving no stone unturned... well frets anyways.

4.Tools commonly found in the fretting room.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.These guitars are next up on todays fretting list.

2.More guitars to be fretted today.

3.Sombody's guitar is about to be fretted.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.After the frets are hammered in the ends are clipped. Some filing and sanding is necessary to smoothen and blend the ends in. Here Jeremy is running a fine grit block down the length of the fingerboard. He is fine tuning the frets and bringing them to the same level.

2.A final few strokes up and down the fingerboard with steel wool cleans it up nice and gives it a smooth finish. Jeremy will sight down the fingerboard one more time to make sure all the frets are level.

3.Fretting complete. Jeremy will hand off this guitar to Nelly and Azucena for nut and bridge.

4.Here's Azucena and she is about to glue on a bridge to this Forum III guitar.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.A nice even layer of glue on both the bridge and top are necessary to ensure a solid bond.

2.Two index pins help Azucena place the bridge in the precise location without slippage.

The index pins were drilled out earlier just before fretting.

3.A caul block under the bridge and a C clamp are used to secure the bridge firmly.

4.Cleaning up any excess glue is a must. This allows for a much quicker drying time and a lot less cleanup effort later.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.On the rack for the rest of the day. Tomorrow this guitar will be prepped for the satin booth.

2.A few more guitars waiting for Azucena to glue bridges on.

3.On the rack drying.

4.On the rack drying.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.Let me introduce you to Nelly. She has been fitting nuts for longer than anyone ever at Larrivée. Infact if your guitar has a serial number higher that 65000, chances are she installed it. She is the master.

In this photo Nelly is observing how much she will need to sand down and make a snug fit.

2.First she sands the thicknes of the nut. Then checks and reworks untill it is correct.

3.Next she sands down the height. All nuts start oversized so it's a matter of removing excess to make it all fit.

4.Filing down the nut slot can be tricky business. Different files are used for different string slots. Too deep and the string can't glide over the nut. Too shallow and the string can pop out.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1. Nelly is pretty excited these days. She is heading off to the Phillipines to visit her familly for one month at the end of the week. Apparently it's in the 30's(celcius) right now. Hava a nice trip Nelly.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.John R. is mixing up his Larrivée secret recipe of satin finish.

2.Filtering out any lumps or debris that could cause contamination or blockage of the gun and paint.

3.Chef Regehr... the pièce de résistance in the paint dept. here at Larrivée. A splash of this, a drop of that and a touch of this... VOILA! Silky satin finsh.

4.Loading up the pressure can. Unlike the the main spray booths the satin is prepared daily and and has it's own smaller system.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.Here we have satin prep.The bridge and fingerboard are taped up to avoid overspray from paint gun. A fresh soundhole cover is added and the entire guitar is wiped down to clear any contamination.

2.This rack up next for satin. There are 8 guitars on each one.

3.First the top is prayed. Notice the satin goes on shiney and has a very wet look. It quite rappidly goes hazy and then turns satin in a matter of minutes.

4.Now the back. Spraying bodies and full guitars is a lot easier than spraying necks becuase they are suspended on hooks. No need for holding them up. It can get quite sore on the arms after a while, no matter how long you've been doing it.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.Look at the wood on that mahogany top. Simply stunning.

2.Nice back as well.

3.The back of the neck and the headstock are sprayed last. Starting to look really good now.

4.Satin is finished. John will hang it on a rack and will be "satin clean-up" tomorrow. That means tape removed and minor touch-ups. This guitar is very close to final assembly.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.Nice full rack. These are all Forum III guitars waiting for signature cards to come from Jean. They will arrive today. Once the cards are installed they will get assembled. That includes machine heads, saddle, pick guards, pick-ups(not in this case), set up and strung up. And anything else that is added on.

2.She'a a beauty.





[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

1.This fine modern messenger is the gentleman we've all been waiting for. He has brought the package of labels that were freshly signed, by Jean, and sent off from California yesterday.

*Poor guy had no idea what the excitement was all about. But he was happy to have his picture taken. Good job FedEx.

2.The goods.

*Wendy's post it note.

3.The slicer. Now to get these on some Forum guitars.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Randy_R]

John Larrivee Jr has asked us not to copy the pictures or captions from facebook until he finishes checking them and the associated comments. I've asked John to write a message on facebook when the day's pictures are ready for prime time.


Just re-posting this at the end in case people are looking at the pics for the first time.

Please do not post responses to the pictures here.
This thread is for photos only, and when the build is over it will be locked by the mods for future reference.  The previous forum guitar pictures all got mixed up with discussion, so it would be a nice to have this record as a single entity.

Please discuss here

http://www.larriveeforum.com/smf/index.php?topic=25099.msg227114;topicseen#new

Thanks