HELP Larrivee 'L''s -- Seagull M6, MJM6, Folk, Breedlove Atlas. Which one ?

[spinrider2000]

daysailer, my first guitar was a Seagull M6. I really felt comfortable on this guitar. I have small hands and playing is no problem. A few months ago after finding this forum I bought an L-03r.....good choice it turns out to be. Playing between the two guitars......the L has a lower action, better construction quality. Now the other factors, cost for the L is around $300 more. ok, in my opinion worth it. As far as ease of playing both are equal. Now to the sound..... when I play country type songs the Larrivee is better to my ear......when I go a little blues the Seagull sounds better to my ear! to be honest I like the blues on the Seagull! I believe its a toss up to what you are playing. Quality and sound (in general) go to the Larrivee....a good, well priced, guitar, that will open up well with playing then the Seagull....I have both. Cant go wrong either way, just make a choice, make that guitar RING and then never look back!

[Pjmsj21]

Phil

I looked at the three guitars that you are looking at when I purchased my LO3R last year at this time.  In one of your posts you mentioned looking for a "guitar for life".  I took pretty much the same approach and think that based upon this comment you should go with the Larrivee....not that the other guitars you are considering are not good choices.  I just think that any Larrivee is a guitar that many players could be happy with for  the rest of their lives and not need to upgrade...down the line.

Pat Mc

[retrow]

Tell your wife how many years you plan to own and enjoy the Larrivee of your choice.  Divide the price by the number of years, and you will get a dollar amount per year.  Ask your wife if your happiness isn't worth that amount per year.  Or, tell her you'll get the Larrivee now, and she doesn't have to get you a birthday gift for the next "X" number of years.....
or, buy what you want and tell your wife "it followed me home, can I keep it?"

Hahahahaha. Take it from a wife, none of that will work. Just tell her I bought this Larri and that's that!!! Okay, that definitely won't work either. Just start a guitar fund. Let her know of it's existance (ie: in an envelope) letting her know she can add to it if she'd like. When you have enough in it, you'll feel good buying it since you waited and saved. LOL. I keep reminding myself that when I look at my envelope... almost there!
retrow

[kwakatak]

OT: Retrow, that's a good idea! I've been window shopping for two years now and wish that thought had come to my attention back then. If it had, I'd probably have had either a OM-03R or at least a L-03 by now - and started saving for the other! ;)

[tiffer]

Phill,

Brought up the comparrison between my Larry & Breedlove only due to the difference in the thickness of the necks.  Not to compare to the Atlas, although the thickness front to back are the same.  The Breed is more along the lines of a Martin Modified low oval neck, which is shallow from front to back, whereas the Larry has a thicker neck front to back and fills the hand better.  As stated I prefer the feel of the Larry's neck, but find for some things the thinner neck of the Breed easier.

I have only played 3 L series Larry's, and all were keepers, as were the 2 Dreds and 1 OM I have tried.  I like more bass, but the Larry's are just such sweet sounding balanced guitars.  Plus the fit and finish are second to none.  For a guitar you will keep for a long long time, can't see how you would be dissapointed in a Larry.  Well worth more than what they sell for.

Retrow,

It's good to have a womans view, lets us know what we can and can't get away with  :GRN> or what will or won't work.  :huh: But it sure never hurts to try  :WNK> 

[retrow]

Retrow,

It's good to have a womans view, lets us know what we can and can't get away with  :GRN> or what will or won't work.  :huh: But it sure never hurts to try  :WNK> 

Nope, it doesn't hurt to try and as I always tell my hubby, "CASH SPEAKS"!
LOL– actually, only when there's a guitar I'm trying to save up for, but in
general flowers suffice, even if it's from Costco.

retrow

[Daysailer]

  Pjmsj21.       How did you choose between the Mahogony and Rosewood for your "guitar for life????

:rolleyes:

[sayheyjeff]

I went through a similar decision process nearly a year ago.  main difference was that I was looking at tacoma parlors and not the breedloves as the 3rd guitar in the mix.  I really like my teacher's tacoma and couldn't find the right one used to buy.  Played a few larrivees at a local shop and loved playing them - particularly a mahogany top D03.  Was able to play seagulls locally too.  Found them to be very nice.  Sounded good and are comfortable to play.  I didn't think they were anywhere near as nice as the larrivees, however, and saw that as reasonable given the price difference.  Didn't care for the local store local and thought the L might be a better size for me, so when Jason of Notable put a beautiful LO5MT up for sale in my price range with a trial period, I decided to stop looking and go for it.  Not one moment of regret.  Its a fabulous guitar.  It is great to play and is beautiful to listen to.  In the house, I never play anything else.  I play with a mostly pick and at this point mostly strum while learning to flatpick.  I am years from "ready for primetime" so I can't tell you how it works playing with others, but my teacher says it is as nice a guitar as he has played (he has a great little martin cutaway, a tacoma parlor and a tacoma dred). 

I have since picked up a used Seagull Folk that was available locally and its nice to play but not the same.  Play it on the porch and in the yard and to lessons in bad weather.  I like it and think it is a good instrument but I don't think the neck or fingerboard feel as good or are as easy to play, it has a simple, more basic sound compared with my Larrivee and, while attractive, is not the beautiful instrument to look at that my larrivee is. 

I don't have pictures to share yet but the LO5MT you can see LB play on his web site will give you the idea. 

jeff   

[Hoser Rob]

I'm not going to give specific brand recommendations, but if you want to play fingerstyle I think what you need is volume.  I think that's pretty important for pickstyle too ... in fact I think it's the number one thing other than whether it fits you and the fretboard is true ... but fingerstylists almost always aren't going to hit the strings as hard as you would with a big pick.

Seagulls with cedar tops do tend to be pretty good in this respect.  Cedar is a loud wood and that's why it's so common with nylon string and some other guitars marketed to fingerstylists.  Breedloves are considered good for fingerstyle but I don't know about the Atlas ones.  I'm sure Larrys are good too but everyone I know who uses one uses a pick ... which isn't a comment on the guitars.

Don't be swayed by the hype that you can't play dreads fingerstyle.  Some of the best players have done just that.  It really comes down to the individual guitar and setup.  You can put two of the same model side by side and one could be great for fingerstyle and the other one stinky.

When you're trying guitars, have someone else play them in a good size room and see how loud they are across the room.  As I said volume is very important.  What good's a great tone if you're jamming with people and they can't hear you?

[12barBill]

I'm still trying to get the point across that the Artist Series Seagulls are on an entirely different level of guitar than the S Series and the M Series. Woods, appointments, tone - a big step up... not that the S and M Series are not great guitars for the money. Oh well, I realize that this IS the "Larrivee Guitar Forum."

[Pjmsj21]

  Pjmsj21.       How did you choose between the Mahogony and Rosewood for your "guitar for life????

:rolleyes:

Well I just liked the sound of rosewood versus the mahogany or at least I did at the time.  And while I still consider myself more of a rosewood guy, I have heard some very nice mahogany guitars and I dont think the decision if made now would be as easy for me.  In essence my tastes have expanded to better appreciatet mahogany.  But none the less if I could only have one guitar (which is currently my situation) I would still choose rosewood for it's deep throaty characteristics.  Rosewood vs mahogany is one  of those questions that is asked all of the time as evidenced by the numerous posts on this and other forums.

[ronmac]

I'm still trying to get the point across that the Artist Series Seagulls are on an entirely different level of guitar than the S Series and the M Series. Woods, appointments, tone - a big step up... not that the S and M Series are not great guitars for the money. Oh well, I realize that this IS the "Larrivee Guitar Forum."

You are right about this. The Artist Series is definitely a step above the regular lines. I am still hesitant to put them in the same league as the Larrivee, but I will say that they are a great guitar.

A couple of years ago the Twelfth Fret had a used Seagull Artist Grand. I already owned a regular Grand, but I knew the Artist would be a diferent beast, given that it was solid RW B/S. I hesitated, mostly because it was so cheap!

The kicker is that it was just traded in by J.P Cormier (East Coast acoustic instrument GOD) so I figured that there must be something wrong with it (it was being sold cheap!). I was hosting a festival featuring J.P. the next day so I asked him about it. He told me it was a Killer little guitar, and that he had just used it on an album that he had finished cutting. But J.P. has major league GAS and he traded a whole whack of instruments in on a new Gibson SJ Custom Maple (that he was showing off at the Festival). His advise, buy the Grand!!!

Guess what? I called the Fret the next day and it was gone :<>

Sometimes inexpensive doesn't mean cheap.

[sayheyjeff]

want to agree with what has been said about the artist series seagulls.  also want to clarify that mine is an artist series.  (and it is a pretty loud little guitar).

jeff

[Daysailer]

 -_-           Thanks to all for helping me see these choices from different points of view.  I did get a chance to play some seagulls, Including an Maple Artist Series, that had playability that was just what I was looking for.  Alas, the maple sound was not. 

In the end, I choose  to stretch the budget and tracked down an L03 BW.  The advice to look at this longer term  (have been playing my old box, all lam, for over 33 years)  was what I needed to set my aim a bit higher.

Look for my "the rest of the story" post , soon to be released in the For sale secton of this forum.

Again, Thanks for all the thoughful and honest opinions shared here.   


phill         :mellow:

[irichrobi]

Hey, I'm new to this site. And I'm new to these forums, so if I don't do things right, please let me know.
I've been reading these posts, and I was not going to reply just yet but this post but it was just too coinsidental. I happpen to have an M6-GT Seagull, and I just bought a L-03r today. I had to drive 100 miles each way to get it.
I live in Whittier Ca, and had to drive to Carlsbad in San Diego Co. to Buffollo Brothers. Big sellection of guitars. Good prices.
Well, I like the Seagull. It sounds good, but I found it a little hard on my fingers. And it was a little on the tight side when playing cords in the first three frets. I think it's a couple of steps below the L-o3. Anyway, it was a good excusse to buy a larrivee. The larrivee sounds so much nicer. I was going to sell the Seagull but I think I will keep it for a while. I hope it won't collect too much dust with the new Larrivee around.
Will be talking to you more often now that I'm an owner.
-_-

[Randy_R]

welcome to the forum irichrobi. And congratulations on becoming a Larrivee owner.

Buffalo Bros sounds like a good place to visit some day.

[tbp0701]

I'm also new here but have lurked for a couple of weeks.

To the original post, I've looked at both Seagulls and Larrivees quite a bit (as well as Martin 15-series and Taylor 2xxs) and have to say, I really liked a couple of Seagulls I tried (but also found a couple I didn't care for).  However, I thought that, even with a Seagull, I'd probably still want a Larrivee L or OM-03 or Martin 000-15,  So I figured it'd be better to get what I really liked anyway.  I don't know if that argument can hold sway with a wife.  Besides, add in the extra cost for a case with a Seagull, and the 03/000-15s don't seem all that much more expensive.  (As for me, well, life got a bit ugly, so I don't have any of the above and am making due with my Strat and a '65 Gibson B-25 that my father originally found in a pawn shop in the 70s).

[retrow]

I've been reading these posts, and I was not going to reply just yet but this post but it was just too coinsidental. I happpen to have an M6-GT Seagull, and I just bought a L-03r today. I had to drive 100 miles each way to get it.
I live in Whittier Ca, and had to drive to Carlsbad in San Diego Co. to Buffollo Brothers. Will be talking to you more often now that I'm an owner.
-_-

Hey, welcome to the forum irichrobi! I too took that drive w/ hubby (we live in Redlands) just a few weeks ago and came home with an OM-03R. Oh, and I too own a Seagull S-6 gt which I'm thinking of trading, it would be nice to get a Larri Parlour or Martin 00-15. Always loved my Seagull but realistically I probably won't play it since the OM is so much more comfy.

[retrow]

I'm also new here but have lurked for a couple of weeks.

To the original post, I've looked at both Seagulls and Larrivees quite a bit (as well as Martin 15-series and Taylor 2xxs)

Just wanted to welcome you to the forum tbp!!!! Lots of knowledgeable people around here, keep on posting.

[tbp0701]

Thanks, retrow.  There's been quite a bit of good reading so far.