Forum III impressions and discussion

[photomat]

#59 , SN 108,555 , finally opened and ready for service:


Hmm, that's more runout than any Larrivee I've owned.  But it's not bad.


Interesting pattern in how the rosewood meets in the middle.  Nice colors on the edge.

Once tuned up a half-tone to standard E, the tone was tighter than a drum.  Not much to sing about.  Key of G flat-picked sounded out of tune while E was fine.  I'll let the guitar acclimate to Seattle humidity.

Fingerstyle with picks got my ears to start to enjoy what was coming out of the box.  More later.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS (the title of the thread):  Good but not great guitar.  Too new, I think.

Tomorrow at Photomat's will be a good opportunity for the LS to show its true stuff.

Norm,

Great to see and hear your guitar today!  I never even saw your initial impression with the photos go through.  I love that orange color in the rosewood, and I enjoyed hearing the difference between the rosewood and mahogany models today. 

[Trinity Guitars]

Well folks,  Seams like UPS has delayed the scheduled 3/16 delivery of 23 forum guitars until 3/21 or 3/22. They were scheduled to pick them up at Larrivee before Good Friday but did not arrive until after Easter. I will get ahold of everyone's who's guitars arrives this week to review the set up final specifications ect.
Jim Holler

[Dotneck]

I love the way these RW/IS guitars look. Beautiful. Wish I had ordered one of those just so it could sit on a stand and look pretty.

Hope I'm happy with a hogtop....

[BenF]

I am having a real bother keeping my forum III in tune.  I cannot put my finger on why at the moment.  Anybody got any advice.  Could it be

A couple of poor tuners (we have had the ping argument a lot on here)
The fact it is so new
The fact that it has come a long way and needs to acclimatise to Scottish humidity - if so how long does it tend to take
The strings

Any advice would be much appreciated.  I cannot get it to stay in tune in dropped tunings at all.  When it is in tune the intonation is spot on, and it plays really nicely.

My OM-03 is nearly always bang on in tune, even if it has been in the case for days without being played, so it isn't changes in humidity levels between days.

Thanks in advance.

Ben

[strawintogold]

A couple of poor tuners (we have had the ping argument a lot on here)
The fact it is so new
The fact that it has come a long way and needs to acclimatise to Scottish humidity - if so how long does it tend to take
The strings

Yes. Although id look at 1, 3 and 4 first.  Is it a few strings that are constantly a problem? That would narrow it down.

holly

[flatlander]

I'd probably be leaning towards Tuners and/or adjusting to climate. My experience with strings ,after they're done stretching,
is that if they are bad it shows up in intonation. Different strings wouldn't cost much to eliminate as suspect though.
After a week or 2 I'd be heavily looking at tuners. The pings on my 000-60 aren't too bad, but they don't hold like Schallers on L-10 and Gallagher. If the intonation is good when it's in tune, I wouldn't worry much.
New tuners probably the worst case scenario and that wouldn't be a bad idea anyway. I should get some for my 000-60.

[Stephen Basil]

I've been having tuning frustrations too.

[prof_stack]

This might be related to the tuners.  Check the nut slots and the tightness of fit of the strings, especially the thinner ones.  Graphite might help.

[BenF]

It isn't generally one string, it is all over the place.  I'll take it out of the case and it is flat across all the strings, so I tune it up and 10 minutes later they are all sharp again.  It is worse in open tunings.  PITA to be honest.  I was trying to record Caledonia in CGCGCE, capoed at the third fret, and at the end of the first verse the E and D strings were out of tune every time either sharp or flat, unitl I gave up.  In std tuning, it is the G and B strings that won't stay in tune.  Maybe I'll just change out the strings to the Newtones I am used to and go from there.  Like others have said I don't like wasting strings, and it does seem a waste to change out new ones!

Maye I just need to persevere until they settle in a bit better.

Ben

[BenF]

This might be related to the tuners.  Check the nut slots and the tightness of fit of the strings, especially the thinner ones.  Graphite might help.

Prett sure that is OK.  Jim set it up, and ther is none of the typical creaking noise with that issue.  It was the first thing I checked.  I tend to give the string a wee press behind and in front of the nut each time I tweak the tuner to eliminate that issue anyway, and they don't seem sticky.

One of the pings on my OM-03 feels loose, regardless of how tight the button is.  You can turn it about an 8th of a turn with no change to string tension, but once it is in tune, it holds it fine.  These ones all seem tight enough.

[Jagadis]

It may just be the guitar adjusting to a different climate.  I just got back from a week in Mexico.  I took my Go travel guitar down with me.  Before I left I noticed the the Go was a little dried out and the fret ends were sticking out.  Mexico was incredibly humid and I left the Go guitar out of the case for the 6 days I was there in order to let it get a bit of moisture into the wood.  By the time I left Mexico 6 days later, the fret ends were no longer sticking out.  I also noticed that the guitar went sharp by almost a 1/4 of a tone as it got adjusted to the new climate.  I had to keep retuning it each day.  Moral of the story is that a change in climate can definitely cause a thin walled guitar to go a bit wonky while it adjusts.  I haven't noticed any tuner issues with my FIII.

Jordan.

[BluesMan1]

   Ben, best thing is to work from simplest & less costly to the worse. Just change the strings first, stretch them when you put them on, tune it up. Play it for a day or two so the strings can stretch & adjust. Maybe put some graphite in the slots or make sure they're free from debris when changing then. It shouldn't take weeks for it to acclimate to where you are. Then, you'll have to look @ the tuners & take it from there. Boy, I hope I don't have these problems when I get mine. Can't afford new tuners, or will Larrivee swap them out for new ones if that is the problem (worst case). Ask to talk to Wendy or Matthew when they decide to start taking phone calls again. Larrivee, @ the moment, won't take calls, only emails. Either way , good luck. Simplest first.
     Jeff   

[prof_stack]

Jim set it up, and ther is none of the typical creaking noise with that issue.  It was the first thing I checked.  I tend to give the string a wee press behind and in front of the nut each time I tweak the tuner to eliminate that issue anyway, and they don't seem sticky.

One of the pings on my OM-03 feels loose, regardless of how tight the button is.  You can turn it about an 8th of a turn with no change to string tension, but once it is in tune, it holds it fine.  These ones all seem tight enough.

That last part sounds like it could be a tight slot in the nut.  Yesterday Photomat broke another string (G string I think) and he showed me how tight the string was in the slot.  He might have to widen it just a hair.

[photomat]

Yesterday Photomat broke another string (G string I think) and he showed me how tight the string was in the slot.  He might have to widen it just a hair.

Yep, changing the tuning from Dadgad to Double Drop D to normal to changing the saddle back and forth will sure break those strings, right at the tuning peg even. 

Hope the tuning issue calms down for you.  make sure the nuts on the tuners are snug (not too tight).  I do find when I tune to another tuning, it takes a little while to settle in.

[johnny37]

    Ask to talk to Wendy or Matthew when they decide to start taking phone calls again. Larrivee, @ the moment, won't take calls, only emails. Either way , good luck. Simplest first.
     Jeff   

Why would you ask to talk to them?  They are in California, and the guitar was built in Vancouver.  Call there, not California in my opinion.

[prof_stack]

Speaking of tuning, last night I noticed that the G-string tuner in the LS-03R wasn't adjusting the pitch in a smooth manner.  When I loosened the string to check the nut slot, the string did not come out without great effort on my part.  So the string is binding in the slot, a sure cause of breakage.

I put some graphite from a pencil in the slot and that helped, but it appears either the slot was not cut correctly or the EXP lights G-string is a little bigger than advertised. 

[BluesMan1]

   Well Johnny, if you live in the US & not Canada, first off the call is a fraction of the cost. Cost me $11 to call Dave Wren for 10 mins.. They can answer your questions in Calif., as I had a similar prob. that Wendy addressed on my OM-03 SP, made in 'Couver. Live in "Nanook" country, call BC. In the US, call Wendy. She's vice pres. of the company, will help in any way, & if there is a consistent prob. with the factory installed nuts, she'll take care of it. Remember, not only is she the vice, cut she's also John's Mommy. If there is a problem that is traced to a part, they will rectify it. That's why you call certain factories. Otherwise, they'd only have one phone #. Makes sense? Also, do you not think Calif. is well aware of all aspects of the build? Still haven't gotten an answer to my email from over a week ago. Not taking phone calls, Matthew answers the emails, or Wendy. What's up?
     Jeff   

[tadol]

Jeff - Vancouver is running minimal shifts or even effectively closed temporarily, and Oxnard has probably cut back as well. They will answer emails when they have time, but are probably not answering the phone for the same reason I usually don't - most of the calls are solicitations.

Tad

[Vancouver Southpaw]

   Well Johnny, if you live in the US & not Canada, first off the call is a fraction of the cost. Cost me $11 to call Dave Wren for 10 mins.. They can answer your questions in Calif., as I had a similar prob. that Wendy addressed on my OM-03 SP, made in 'Couver. Live in "Nanook" country, call BC. In the US, call Wendy. She's vice pres. of the company, will help in any way, & if there is a consistent prob. with the factory installed nuts, she'll take care of it. Remember, not only is she the vice, cut she's also John's Mommy. If there is a problem that is traced to a part, they will rectify it. That's why you call certain factories. Otherwise, they'd only have one phone #. Makes sense? Also, do you not think Calif. is well aware of all aspects of the build? Still haven't gotten an answer to my email from over a week ago. Not taking phone calls, Matthew answers the emails, or Wendy. What's up?
     Jeff   

$11 for 10 minutes?! - yikes - sounds like the 1970s. Up here Yak charges 3 cents a minute to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada, anytime. Long distance costs just aren't an issue any more.

Mike

[BluesMan1]

   VS- I have unlimited long-distance calling, which I thought was US & Canada. My wife saw the bill, told her what happened, & just another reason for her to B**** about my guitar thing. She has her hobbies, like shopping for Coach purses & getting diamonds from our "personal" jeweler, but my hobby is also my passion. She doesn't get it. I get spanked verbally alot. Too bad not physically!
   Will have to email Larrivee with my request again, in case it got lost in all of the solicitor's mail!
     Jeff