Flamed Maple Parlor 2003 01 FM

[ST]

Well this one is in the house. Not sure if it is staying. But it's here for now.

I had been watching the price of this one falling in Craigslist. And then... to my great relief, it was gone. Then a couple of days later I ran into a buddy and he says, "Hey, you want to buy a parlor?".

So it's here now. All the technical specification are on my site:  Larrivée P01-FM











The saddle seems really tall and the action is very high for me.





This 12 frets to the body thing is a little constraining. I keep banging my hand into the body even as I'm playing at the 10th fret. (Barre D, F#m, A in a D shape)

[ST]

I was thinking of lowering the saddle (filing from the bottom). 

There's a pickup in there, and I would like to keep it. That by itself is not a problem but ...


The pickup - The seller said it was a B-Band, but this doesn't look like the B-Bands on  the B-Band site.



There is also a very thin film on the bottom of the saddle. I don't know if it does anything. But I would have to remove it to file the saddle.

[ST]

I should mention something about the sound / playing experience.

First - when I was researching this guitar I found this really nice thread here about Flamed Maple Parlors. I was quite encouraged.

Also - my main gigging guitar is also has maple back and sides so I had high hopes for this.

I played a set with it last night and I was able to get pretty decent tone out of it, electrified. I'm not so sure about it today though. I'm much happier with the tone of my next smallest guitar, an LS-05. I just find that the LS-05 and the other guitars around here are much more versatile.

My right had can be really subtle to almost slamming in the way I work the strings. The little parlor seems okay with a light to light-medium attack, but it starts to sound downright plonky (that's a word right?) when I dig in a little. Since I am finding the action a bit high, I'm finding myself working harder than usual to get sounds out. So I think I'm overplaying the right hand too. It's interesting to notice how much the left and right hands work together - and how struggling with one leads me to overcompensate with the other. I didn't realize that I did that.

[unclrob]

Out of all the parlours I owned the only one's I liked were the koa b+s one and the maple one.I have always described the tone very resonatorish and they were wonderful for blue's and slide work.Too limiting for me so I sold them.Like you I prefer the LS's I have.I use the LS09FM as my electric acoustic which has an active IBeam that I run thu the Baggs Pari direct pre amp which helps take the edge off the brittleness of all the acoustic pu's I've tries.I have an LS10 also that is one of the only 2 rosewood guitars I've ever owned and love the tone,the other rosewood was a Gibson Vintage AJ based on the 1935 original modal.So all know I'm not a fan of rosewood though after playing a couple of Larrivee brazilian guitars I would love to have the money for an LS09bz or an OM09bz.

[Mr_LV19E]

The film on the bottom of the saddle was probably put there in an attempt to balance the output of the UST. Can't do anything positive for the acoustic output. I would remove the film and sand the bottom of the saddle to where you want it and try the electrics.

[unclrob]

 

[ST]

Thanks for the input on the saddle adjustment guys.

I was going to measure the height of the strings at the 12th fret, then measure the height at the 12th fret on my LS-05, then subtract.

If I take that measurement (the difference) and divide by two - would that be my target to remove from the saddle of the Parlor?



Pickup

Do you think that it's a B-Band pickup?  It really is bright red. There are no internal controls for volume or tone that I can see. Also the output is quite low, but I have replaced the battery and it made no difference.

[teh]

I have the same guitar but did not purchase it to play out so I can see why you might be frustrated with the sound.

In 2004, I purchased mine new (My first Larrivee) from Trinity after playing several mahogany, rosewood and all mahogany models. Since then I have played quilted maple and lacewood parlors but never koa. I removed the clear pickguard (not my cup of tea) and added a bone saddle and fitted hardshell case.

This guitar loves open tunings (right now it's in open C) and doesn't even have an end pin hole. I love the clean simple looks and paid considerably less than the list price in US dollars quoted on the link from your original post. I would mike it if I wanted it to be louder but it was meant to be a porch picker and travel guitar for car trips (not plane rides). For me it fills out a gap in the aresenal.

It will be going to Canada with me in June and sounds great with a couple of Jameson's Irish Whiskey which we refer to as rock softener.

[Randy_R]

with maple binding, I would consider this guitar an -03.

[ST]

Hi Randy,

with maple binding, I would consider this guitar an -03.

The specifications:  Larrivée P01-FM are from the internet archive for the Larrivée site in 2003.

The first version was just designated O-01 Flamed Maple Parlor - Standard
with options available.

So I guess this was just Larrivée trying to figure out what to call these.

[ST]

For anyone following the story

I lowered the saddle, adjusted the relief, and found just the right settings to make it sound pretty good through my live sound rig (although the pickup was noisy). At the end of the exercise I had a great little guitar that I probably wouldn't play very often. It was good to have it here to satisfy my curiosity and answer the lingering questions I have had about guitars with 12 frets to the body, short scale, tiny bodies.

This fine little guitar has moved on to a more appreciative home.

Thank you to everyone who replied in this thread. I am grateful for your comments and ideas.