That's R for rosewood.
Made in Canada. 2013. Canadian spruce top. Indian rosewood back/sides. One piece mahogany neck. Ebony board & bridge.
Great condition for a 2013 model. It looks hardly played, and feels it too. Today I cleaned up the frets, tweaked the truss rod, sanded some crud from the nut slots and the saddle, oiled the fretboard (it loved it), gave the whole thing a wipe and a polish and now here we are.
The shape is Larrivee's own proprietary L shape, which is kinda like the butt of a dreadnought, with the waist and top half of an OM. Scale length is still the 25.5" but this sits a lot easier and a lot more comfortably than your usual dreadnought shape seemingly without sacrificing that much in terms of volume.
It's incredibly comfortable to sit and play. Much more modern than any Martin I've played. The frets are big, the neck is a pretty slim D but somewhat wide (1.75" at the nut), and the radius is compound from 16" - 21" at the dusty end. Overall you can move if you need it, it can be chunky if you need it and a very versatile profile. The big frets make it feel like a current electric than most acoustics I've played.
Check out the maple binding:
Clean looking headstock with the Tusq nut:
Good grade of spruce they've used here:
Simple minimalistic design. No abalone or gaudy stuff anywhere which (for me) is great. I can't get along with glossy blingy acoustics and think understated minimal stuff ages much better.
More nice timber for the back.
I watched an interview with Jean Larrivee (founder and still making the guitars) where he said he spends half the year sourcing timber, and half in the factory making instruments. Their timber is nothing short of impeccable. Grain is tight, the bookmatch is nigh on perfect, the colour is superb and this is some real quality shit. There's an air of elegant quality with Larrivees that's rapdi
The whole neck is one piece of mahogany, not 2 or 3 pieces laminated at the heel to get the thickness:
Jean maintains this is the best way for good ol' toan.
This is the butt where everything meets and that classy interplay between the maple and rosewood:
So. How does it sound?
'balanced' would be a good word but that doesn't really sell it. It's not booming bass like a D28, it's not delicate and jangly like my old Taylor. There's a big, round, smooth upper mid where the highs sort of taper off gently, sitting on top of a wide rolling calm bass. I personally believe that once its opened up after a couple of years I think it'll be even nicer.
I do wonder if its a little congested after some inactivity like it hasn't quite fully woken up yet but what is there is very pleasing indeed to my ears.
My wife says it's louder than both the Martin i just sold and the Yairi I'd had for years. I'll take her word for it.
It came with a very nice case too that was a nice touch and further reinforces the feeling of quality with this brand. They don't do shit stuff, they seem to just do simple, honest, quality products.
Some might find them too polite in looks but I like how it looks almost nondescript until you look closer and see the gorgeous chocolatey ripples of the rosewood, the immaculate satin finish, impeccable fretwork. You could take this to a jam and nobody would look twice except for those in the know and I really dig that.
Things to note:
Larrivee changed the recipe of these guitars somewhere around 2016/2017 where they switched to a bone nut/saddle, and started binding the neck in maple. I think these are all great choices and if I could have found a later one I would have bought it just for these little visual upgrades. I've no problem with ivoroid if that's what you get, but maple binding is boner material for me. Otherwise nothing has changed on these guitars in 40 years.
I've ordered some ebony tuner buttons because I think that will look great, some ebony bridge pins (although plastic is 100% a-ok), and a bone saddle which I think will do something positive and if not, it's reversible in about 5 seconds.
Suffice to say this is a very well made, great looking, good sounding guitar that punches above its weight. They're sensitive and warm when fingerpicked, and bold and full when you whip out the Tortex.
Good guitars from a company I'm coming to greatly admire.
