Larrivee Review: L-05

History:

Purchase: Purchased for about $1800 CDN (~$1200 US) from local music store.

What I Like About This Larrivee L-05: Great sound. I tried Martins and Taylors sitting right beside the Larrivee, and the Larrivee was right in there for tone and clarity. The bonus was the trim was much nicer, in my opinion. The "L" body style is part dreadnaught, part classical, sort of. What is seems to do is reduce the booming that dreadnaughts seem to have, in my opinion. The whole spectrum seems much more balanced. The workmanship is top notch, at least in my sample. With only a few quibbles (see below). The guitar is beautiful, and sounds great. Going to the 05 trim level affords a wider spaced nut. This was a big concern for me, as I have/had real troubles properly chording patterns in the past. My fingers always seem to mute a couple extra strings. Immediately upon playing the L-05, I was able to rapidly switch chords, and not smack strings I was not supposed to. I need the extra room, and am thankful I paid for it.

What I Do NOT Like About The Larrivee L-05: Little. Other than the price (hey, I am cheap, I admit it.), Only two things really bug me. One, the Low E string seems to have a buzzing fret way up at fret 16. I will never play up there (way up on the soundboard), but for a $2000 guitar, I want perfection. I suspect a luthier will take all of 5 minutes to either reseat the fret, or sand it down a ting. Not a big deal in reality, just an annoyance. The other thing is on my particular guitar, during the bookmatching of the mahogany sides, it seems there was a small hole/sap pocket/void, the size of a side dot marker. This was filled with something, and results in two identical off colour dots, on either side of the neck, about 2 inches onto the shoulder of the body. Not a big deal, since wood is an imperfect medium, but they filled it with a non-mahogany fill (maple?) A mahogany pin would have been invisible. Again, a minor cosmetic blemish I did not see in ANY other samples. Not a flaw by any means, but I wish the guitar came with some sort of stap studs installed. Nothing was installed in either the neck/shoulder, nor the tail. Since I like playing standing up at times, this means I am going to have to have them installed. Oh well. Some might consider haveing studs on a high price acoustic blasphemy, and they may be right. I want them however.

Larrivee L-05 Quality Rating: Construction seems excellent. Aside from two minor quirks mentioned above, looks good. The flame maple wood binding is flawless, and really looks cool. The abalone rosette is cool and perfectly done. All binding and glue seams appear invisible, just the way they are supposed to be. The sterling silver headstock border inlay has invisible joints, and looks really neat. The ebony (?) bridge could be a little darker/polished, but that is more personal preferance. The guitar sports a really nice transparent pickguard. From a few feet you cannot even tell it is there. Seriously. Look close, and it looks like a long fine scratch, until you realise it is the pickguard edge. Looking at this guitar, essentially without a pickguard, makes me look at all other guitars WITH those disgusting dark brown odd shaped things stuck on the soundboard and make me think, "What the hell are you thinking!". The non-pickguard pickguard method has won me over forever, it looks that good. The guitar came with a really nice hardshell case, truss adjustment tool, picks, polishing cloth, and some instruction/warranty stuff. Altogether well built, with only a few expected blemishes.

Review Summary: A solid value when put up against Taylors and Martins in the same price range. Build quality and finish are all there, perhaps more so compared to the Taylors and Martins in the same price point. Sound is a highly personal thing, the guitar essentially becomes your voice. Larrivee has it's own sound. Not drastically different from those, but different, especially going with the L-shape body from a dreadnaught. If you are planning to move into a guitar like this, do yourself a favour. Lock youself in a sound room with the Larrivee, Taylor, Martin, Guild, ..., and play them all. I think the Larrivee will put up a really good show.

Rating of this Larrivee product: 4

This Larrivee L-05 Acoustic Guitars Review Submitted By: Moose

Review Date: 2001-11-19