New Larry (L-05 MT) on the way...

[mrrinse]

ok, so i just did something a little crazy for the second time this week, both on e-bay. the first was buying a s/h AER Compact 60 rev 2, with money i don't have. the second was buying a s/h (but mint) L-05MT with I-Beam active pickup about 5 mins ago, again, no money. My bank manager, not to mention family, is going to kill me. Time to whip out that credit card yet again (it's worrying when you've memorised the number)

It's particularly nuts in view of my never having played a Larrivee hog before; I just figured it would provide the maximum contrast with my LV-09 (with A2.2). It's also rather gratuitously excessive (you can't play more than one at once, people keep telling me - although Rhett Butler and others would disagree). But hey, it's a Larry and I love them! Sadly, I don't think it'll make me play like Nick Drake...

Pics at: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IaOGjJqxcsJu  // http://share.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b33626066562&sid=8IaOGjJqxcsJu

I think I'll remove the pickguard and replace it with a transparent one - probably best to do it asap so the top doesn't age unevenly.

A nervously excited and newly bankrupt Dan

[cldplytkmn]

i got mine about 3-4 months ago, and i can't be any more pleased with it.  it just does everything so well... save that nervous energy and put it toward something useful... like talking your way out of trouble... haha seriously though, just enjoy it/them.

[dberch]

Sweet.  Congrats, mrrinse.  Larry hog-tops and AER Compact 60 are a majic combination.  I've been told more than once that my OM-05MT through my AER is the "best amplified acoustic I've ever heard".  Enjoy.  But destroy that card before it destroys you!  I had to cut up two last month.  :<>

I  suggest the first thing you do with your new hog-top it to write a love song dedicated to your loving and understaing wife!  :GRN>  -_-

[drathbun]

Congrats... you may regret it in the short term... but not in the long term. These guitars are keepers! I have a L05 with an active iBeam and I love it. I record it through a condenser microphone AND the iBeam simultaneously to two separate tracks and then play with the L/R balance. I think the iBeam complements the L05 nicely. The hog top, especially in the 05 is super gorgeous!

Don't listen to the "you can only play one at a time" BS. What? One in a LIFETIME? You gotta be joking! I can play eight guitars in less than an hour easy! And each one for a specific reason.

[fallenroadie]

Don't forget, you really need at least five guitars:  standard tuning, DADGBE (drop D), DGDGBE (Eric Lugosh likes this one), DADF#AD (open D), and don't forget DADGAD.  Currently I have only one, and I can't count how many strings I've broken from going back and forth between tunings.  Guess I need more GAS!

Tony

[mrrinse]

thanks! i knew if anyone was going to make me feel better / less guilty, it'd be here!

drathbun - i'm totally with you. amazingly, rhett butler and some other guys manage to play two guitars at once. i might have to practice this just to prove a point!  ^_^ I've never heard an I-Beam Active, so I'm a bit hesitant - as I understand it is a bit like the b-band AST (soundboard) pickup, which by itself is very trebley (awesome blended with the UST using the A2.2 though).

dberch - what pickup are you using in the MT?

i was told over the weekend that my LV-09 was the nicest sounding acoustic (acoustically) this person had heard. i'd like to think it was my playing (yeah right!), but i sadly i know it's purely down to Larry...

FWIW, I've been playing every guitar I can get my hands on in London. IMHO, nothings come close to my LV-09 (even a £3500/$6000 Martin), particularly in terms of feel (less so in terms of tone). Other Larrivees were closest, but weren't opened up as much and not setup as well (thanks Jason at notables). Next were Collings, Lakewood, Taylor and Martin (roughly in that order, but with some variation from model to model). Seagull's pretty good too. Of course, it may be that I've got used to my LV-09, its setup etc, such that anything else but doesn't feel right. [Perhaps for the same reasons, I've never found another electric (other Parkers apart) that I prefer to play to my Parker.... although even I don't like the way it looks! lol ] The only thing that really blew me away was a totally different animal: an Eastman archtop jazz guitar (905CE I think - £1700) - which smoked any other archtop (even in the £4-5k range) I've ever played. Just my £00.2 and another evangelical pro-Larrivee rant!

as you can tell, still very excited!
Dan

[mrrinse]

hi tony - too true about one for each tuning and the string breakage! That was my best justification... I'm a big sucker for open tunings (particularly CGDGAD or close variants; CGCGCE is also fun; FCCGCE too), and it was driving me nuts changing all the time. The problem will be deciding which for which guitar! I think I may be able to justify a few more guitars yet .... I'll need one for standard too! and then there's koa, blackwood, cedar tops, OMs, parlours, mahogany with spruce top, 12 strings ....

right, where are those scissors for the credit card...

[drathbun]

You can adjust the position of the iBeam to give you more/less treble/bass response. I find it a very balanced pickup.

I agree with the comparison of Larrivees to other high-end guitar makers. When I was at the 12th Fret in TO last summer, I was excited to play my first Collings after hearing how amazing they sound from others. No question, a beautiful guitar. Then I played Santa Cruz, Breedlove, Benateau, old Martin. Then I played a Larrivee OM-60 for comparison. OMG! And when you look at the price tag, there is no comparison! The only guitar I have found that sounds and feels better than a Larry in side-by-side comparisons is a Morgan... but it is still not worth the extra $2000 IMNSHO!

[Casino_Phil]

It's particularly nuts in view of my never having played a Larrivee hog before

No, this is actually an established way of acquiring your first 'hog top, in so much as I hadn't played one before I got mine, either!  However, I knew I liked the Martin 15 series, so I added this to the fact that my spruce/mahogany D-03 and spruce/rosewood J-03R sounded and played better than most* other acoustics I'd encountered and concluded that logically a 'hog top D-03 would have to be completely brilliant.  Guess what, I was right!   :GRN> 

( * I say "most"; what I mean is "all" but I don't want to be dogmatic.  Even though it's true.  :TON> ) 

[dberch]

dberch - what pickup are you using in the MT?

mrrinse, I've got a K&K Pure Western mini in my OM-05MT.  Love it!  I really think you'll like the iBeam, though.  All the iBeams I've heard were pretty warm and not trebly at all.  I played a dread with an iBeam through an AER Compact 60 before I bought mine and it sounded fabulous.

[sprayfe]

You'll love it, I got my LV-05mt a coupla weeks ago, put a baggs M1 in it and haven't looked back. Now all I need is a nice setup and new bridge!
good luck!
Rafe

[sprayfe]

can I have your pickguard when you take it off?
Thanks,
rafe :GRN>

[mrrinse]

hi rayfe -
glad you're enjoying it. i'm sure i will too.
now i won't have to kick myself quite so much for missing your LSV-05! although i'm still regretting missing the LV-05MT you picked up (killer price!), i hadn't realised yours was in need of a new bridge. what's the damage ($$$) likely to be on that?
hopefully i won't miss that cutaway for upper fret access. i was a bit nervous buying a guitar without one. to me, my LV-09 also looks better with a cutaway; strangely - to my eyes - somehow the MT suits non-cutaway better than spruce in an L body.

Rayfe - once the pickguard's off, is it reattachable? if so, unless i feel like keeping it as a spare you might be in with a chance (but I'm in the UK so I'd have to post internationally). alternatively, have a word with larrivee - apparently sometimes they can be quite generous :)

i did hear from one person (incidentally also a martin dealer) that they thought the larrivee MTs were the best MTs guitars of any available, and that the L bodies were the best ones within the larrys (YMMV: I've spoken to others who prefer the OM-MT or D-MT).
I'm sure I'll be happy whatever - I've yet to play a bad Larry (something I can't say of many other med/high end manufacturers  :<> ).

[sprayfe]

I got my bridge and saddle MIXED up. Apologies, the saddle is REAL low.  Thanks and I hopeyou enjoy,
Rafe