NGD - Larrivee L-03Zw

[mattwood]

Here is my new to me custom Larrivee L-03 with Austrian spruce top (Moonwood) and Zebrano (Zebrawood) back and sides.  I would like to give a shout out to the seller Steve who is on this board but I'm not sure what his forum name is.  Great guy to deal with!  This is my first custom guitar of any kind and probably first guitar that had exotic woods I've had my hands on.  The Austrian spruce is a creamier color than the pictures show, and it has this neat 3D bearclaw effect that I tried to capture in the last pic.  You really can't see it from face on but when you hold the guitar on your leg, they suddenly appear and look like raised welts or sunken troughs, depending on which spot you are looking at.  It's also my first satin finished guitar.  The guitar build is typical Larrivee, which is superb!  Steve then updated this custom guitar further by adding Gotoh 510 18:1 tuners and added snakewood buttons to them.  Then he also added Bob Colosi dyed bone bridge pins that added a very appealing look to this beauty.  The pictures and my poor photography skills really don't do it justice.

Now, onto the tone.  I really didn't know what to expect from this guitar.  I read what I could and talked to a few people but nothing can really tell you what you will hear.  I've read that Zebrawood sounds like rosewood, mahogany, or walnut from different places and I would probably say there's a little of all three in it.  It's hard to clarify it exactly because of how the Austrian spruce top influences the tone.  I sold my L-05 to help fund this guitar :cry: but I know it's going to a good home.  Where the L-05 was what I would call very warm, woody, and even in it's tone, this guitar is lively and musical.  My wife said it sounds rich and full which is true, but the trebles are chiming and the mids are strong as well.  This guitar doesn't have more than 12 hours of playing time on it so it hasn't come close to opening up, and yet it's already very loud.  Responds really well to fingerstyle, which is what I like to play.  It's just a cool sounding guitar that has it's own things going on and I'm very fortunate to have been able to buy it.

[markj]

 

Congrats!

[Skip Ellis]

Congrats, Matt!! Sounds like you already like it a lot. I promise to give the ol' L-05 a good home and will probably add some of Bob's bone bridge pins and maybe (down the road) some of those fancy Gotoh tuners but have to get new mic and interface first so I can record it first.

[George]

Congratulations!  Love the Zebrawood.  The only thing better than receiving a Larrivee is receiving Another One!

[unclrob]

Very nice,liked the description of the tone as I was wondering about so thanks.

[broKen]

Nice guitar. Zebrano is very cool,,,would love to spend some time with it.

[Walkerman]

I would like to nominate that first picture for GOTM, but I don't know how to copy someone else's photo.

[markj]

I would like to nominate that first picture for GOTM, but I don't know how to copy someone else's photo.

Done! You have to right click the photo and "copy image location" the paste it between two img tags in the nomination thread reply.

[Davy Vanthuyne]

Beautiful guitar. Congrats

[mattwood]

Thanks so much guys for the congrats and nice compliments.  This guitar really amazes me!  It's so responsive and lively and it's a true pleasure to play.  A real testament to the quality of Larrivee guitars and and the family that makes them.