CAN YOU CUSTOM ORDER A LARRIVEE ?

lw216316 · May 15, 2008, 09:54:11 AM

Danny, I'm probably not very good at horse tradin'

The last time I tried it, I ended up paying the guy to take my old horse off my hands and brought home two retired donkeys - all for the low price of 60 easy payments of just $39.95 each.

I told him I could not afford it but he said, 'No problem. We do financing for our PREFERRED customers such as yourself.'
He was such a nice guy. I noticed that $38.42 of the monthly payment goes toward interest and $1.53 goes toward principal. Based on my life expectantcy, I should die 7 years before I get it paid off. That's great ! It means I won't have to pay back the full loan myself. My life insurance will take care of it ! Was that a great deal or what ?!

I did get one FREE donkey blanket for ordering 'NOW'. I asked if I could have two blankets - one for each donkey. He said,
Sorry, supplies are limited - besides, you don't expect us to cover your a-s-s do you?
- but you can cut your one blanket in half and then each donkey can have a half."
I said, "Man, you're so smart. I never thought of that." This guy really knows his business !

After getting home, I tried to get the first donkey out of the trailer. He got stuck. I had to pay to get a guy to come out and help. He said, "It looks like you got your a-s-s in a bind." I said, "Yes sir. It seems to happen every time I go horse trading."

Just then the other donkey fell over and stopped breathing. The guy tried to help the donkey but then looked at me and said, "There ain't nothin' I can do for you. You a-s-s is dead." I said, "Yea, I know."

I called the guy who sold me the donkeys to see if he could help. He said, "No. Our insurance dosen't cover your a-s-s"

- Larry

Danny · May 15, 2008, 11:07:25 AM

Gawllleee! SHAZZAMM! You sure ain't good at horse tradin but you'd make one heck of a fisherman. Are you related to "Will Rogers"?

Danny

lw216316 · May 15, 2008, 12:30:02 PM

Fish tremble at the mention of my name but dad-gum-it I ain't no good with a rope.

As far as test driving some 1 7/8 models, I've done that.

Two days ago I went to a Taylor dealer hoping to test drive an affordable GC3 (about $1,000) or a GC4 (about $1,400). He said he dosen't carry them because they don't sell as many. He had a GC8 (rose/sitka), concert size with standard 1 3/4 for $2,000 - so I played it just to see how the Taylor concert size would fit in my lap. It was a perfect fit.

I told him my goal was to find an affordable 1 7/8 and I had some thoughts of ordering a Taylor
with a 1 7/8 neck ($200 extra). He brought a vintage Martin with 1 7/8 and laid it in my lap. I could immediately tell the difference between the 1 3/4 and the 1 7/8. By the way, the Martin was over $5,000. AND - I actually liked the sound of the new $2,000 Taylor GC8 better than the $5,000 Martin. He may have thought I would get GAS for the Martin and buy it anyway - even though I told him I could not afford a guitar over $2,000.

Some time ago I played a Larrivee SD-60 with a 1 7/8 neck and the neck size was perfect but again I could not afford the SD-60 (well over $2,000) and it is larger than I'm looking for. I want something comfortable to hold in my lap - close to the size of my classical.

So, I've done enough test driving to know for sure the size body and the size neck I want.
Would I be happy with the Larrivee 13/16 neck? - don't know, haven't tried one - but those are well over $2,000 from what I've seen.

- Larry

Danny · May 15, 2008, 07:45:44 PM

Quote from: lw216316 on May 15, 2008, 12:30:02 PM
So, I've done enough test driving to know for sure the size body and the size neck I want.
Would I be happy with the Larrivee 13/16 neck? - don't know, haven't tried one - but those are well over $2,000 from what I've seen.

- Larry

Actually depending on the dealer and other minor issues they can be bought for less than you think. Danny

gary0319 · May 15, 2008, 09:05:18 PM

I'll second what Danny said, I have two 1 13/16 neck models and both were in your price range (not new of course, but darn close). I prefer the 1 13/16 for steel strings, but wider for nylon playing. Also the 1 13/16 Larrivee neck is somewhat reminicent of the classical neck in that there is just a hint of a flat spot in the middle of the profile, feels really good.

Danny · May 15, 2008, 10:42:32 PM

We just had our weekly "git" together and the LSV was shining. One of the younger players begged me to use a pick while playing some strumming ( which I only allow the most experience players to use) So I finally told him O.K. but it has to be a flimsy one! So he asked me to put a pick guard on it. He said "you can put a clear one on it".
I said No I'll keep it that way and use it for a finger picker and get another one for strumming. then he said something about G.A.S. (00 or 000) Oh well who knows. I think my narrow neck Gibson may be heading down the road.
I really like these wider neck Larri's, that part about the radius of the neck having a level area in the middle may have hit it. I know there is something about the neck that at first seemed odd and then it really starts to "fit" the more you play.
So I'm stickin with why custom order what is already tailor made. Just gotta beat the bushes and find one.
I played a Taylor (814 I think) Looks a lot like a LV-10 and it is O.K. But I wouldn't take 2 of them for my LSV-11, I mean it. A lot of difference that I don't have the capacity to explain. But I know what I hear. Nuff said, Danny

KenHolden · May 16, 2008, 02:07:10 PM

have you considered buying a 12string L03 and taking the smaller strings off? And maybe later changing the nut?

I've seen a guy playing in a pub with an old martin 12 string with I only 6 strings on it. He had the unused tuners off of it too. Looked kind of funny at first, but its not all about looks. Looks can be over looked for the right sound and feel.

lw216316 · May 16, 2008, 04:47:01 PM

Yes, I've thought about getting a used 12 string and converting to 6 strings.
I think there might be issues with that. The 12 string would be braced stronger and this might not give a good result with 6 strings - since I would not know what it would sound like until I took the strings off, I would not want to risk it.

pukematrix · June 11, 2008, 12:04:38 PM

Back to the custom Larrivee question. I dropped an email to Larrivee via their "contact us" page asking that question. In my case, I've never been a fan of the ivoroid neck binding when the rest of the body was bound in flamed maple. I asked if it was an option to have the neck bound in maple as well. What I heard back was that it was unknown at this time whether that customization was possible and I should contact a dealer for more information. Thanks for the help, buddy.

Walkerman · June 11, 2008, 12:28:04 PM

Quote from: pukematrix on June 11, 2008, 12:04:38 PM
Back to the custom Larrivee question. I dropped an email to Larrivee via their "contact us" page asking that question. In my case, I've never been a fan of the ivoroid neck binding when the rest of the body was bound in flamed maple. I asked if it was an option to have the neck bound in maple as well. What I heard back was that it was unknown at this time whether that customization was possible and I should contact a dealer for more information. Thanks for the help, buddy.

Talk to Dave at guitar adoptions......

It CAN be done here's a couple of my Larry's

jeremy3220 · June 11, 2008, 02:52:46 PM

Quote from: pukematrix on June 11, 2008, 12:04:38 PM
Back to the custom Larrivee question. I dropped an email to Larrivee via their "contact us" page asking that question. In my case, I've never been a fan of the ivoroid neck binding when the rest of the body was bound in flamed maple. I asked if it was an option to have the neck bound in maple as well. What I heard back was that it was unknown at this time whether that customization was possible and I should contact a dealer for more information. Thanks for the help, buddy.

That's funny

Novalis · June 11, 2008, 03:27:57 PM

It's too bad that Larrivee doesn't take custom orders for regular folks (they DO, in fact, take custom orders from some people, though). Since Larrivee won't do customs, I had to do something I said I'd never do and bought a Martin (ever since Martin moved some production to Mexico I've had a distaste for the Martin name, but nobody else had the specs I wanted). Really simple: OM with a cutaway and no pickguard, but Larrivee won't make them anymore, so I ended up with a Martin OMC-18LJ.

I'm certainly not complaining: the OMC-18LJ is an amazing guitar, but if Larrivee offerred cutaway OM's without pickguards I could have spent less money. I also wish Larrivee still made the BT-60 since the used one I want to buy might be sold before I'm able to scrape up the cash.