NGD!!! acoustic upgrade

After 14 years of playing the same acoustic I finally decided to upgrade. I'm starting to do more acoustic gigs and it just made sense seeing as my epiphone has a repaired neck and all.

So for my 30th birthday I bought myself this lovely Larrivee OMV-03



Looks plain from afar but the wood grain up close is beautiful



Couldn't let the others feel left out, here's a few family photos







Took a gamble like I did with G&L, purchased online from someone in Florida. She is in perfect condition barely a mark on her. Still needs a clean up and some new strings but so far I like it quite a bit, first task tomorrow is to get fresh strings and a humidifier especially with the wood stove going lately

-Dave

Nice guitar Dave. beautiful wood grain on the top. If she sounds good , she is good. Great family photo.-- Darwin

Those Larivee's are very nice guitars. Congratulations!

RickT

it's very nice. congrats. i went out to find a new acoustic recently, and after playing a few hundred, i ended up getting a taylor gs mini. the shorter scale length allows for some very nice fingerings, and the sound is unreal. sounded better then most of the 3k-4k acoustics. only 1 of the 6 of the gs minis that i tried sounded so good though. that is why i only buy in person. such a huge difference between even the same make and model guitars.

Nice one Dave. Does it have a pickup on board at all?

Very nice Dave. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it once you've given it some play time.

Thanks guys! Didn't get to the clean up/string change today, hopefully tomorrow though. I need to pick up some lemon or linseed oil as well, the fret board looks like it could use it.

Louis: I did something similar, went to my local GC and played everything from used budget guitars all the way up to the $4-5k Martins/Taylors. My pick out of the whole place was a Martin OM cutaway, unfortunately it was $2k and even used it was more than twice what I paid for the Larrivee. If you compare specs the Larrivee offers superior woods and construction. I 100% agree with your statement about same models/makes not sounding the same. Didn't have that option as there were no Larrivee's local and the OM cutaway is no longer made, I feel like my gamble worked out though.

Jamie it does have electronics on-board, a B-Band A-5 preamp with under saddle transducer. Sounds good to me, of course I'm used to hearing whatever system was on the epiphone, compared to that just about anything sounds good.

Phil so far I really like the balanced tone it has, the only hiccup, I guess, is the neck is wider/flatter than I'm used to. Not a bad thing though, just different. I really can't wait to get some new strings on her. Right now it seems to have less volume than the Epiphone which has a similar size, but thinner, body.

-Dave

Finally got to the clean up last night, although not until after 10pm, I was up past my bedtime but it was worth it.
It's amazing what some 0000 steel wool and lemon oil can do for a fret board, looks brand new now

I put off re-stringing for the moment, considering buying some ebony or bone/horn bridge pins to replace the cheap plastic ones that are in there now. I'm pretty impatient though so I may string her up tonight and just do the bridge pins another time.

As a side note I may be picking up a '66 Guild Thunder I reverb, it's a neat little 12 watt tube amp with bias vary tremolo and a separate amp/speaker for reverb. The main 12" delivers the dry signal while an 8" provides the wet. Interesting amp, mint condition, and for the price the guy is asking I may not be able to pass it up. We shall see, if it was a 66J it would have been a done deal

-Dave

Great looking Larrivee OMV-03 there, Dave. The other guitars look good too!!

The butterscotch blonde ASAT looks really good with a rosewood fretboard. I just noticed this in the picture. Most that I have seen have a maple fretboard, not that they look bad at all either. I really do like this combination with the black pickguard and pickups though. I guess I should ask if it is blonde? The incandescent light can add a lot of yellow. This could also be a natural finish but I don't see wood grain supporting a clear finish.

Thanks Lefty!

Michael it is actually a natural finish, it's a 1990 asat and has aged to a butterscotch-like tint.
Here is a better pic, one of the nicest pieces of ash I've ever owned (the back has a nicer grain though). There are more pics in the G&L porn area, including the back wood grain.

It's also up for sale in the marketplace, I need funding for other projects and as much as I love the looks and the sound, the neck on my other asat is made for me and sound wise I can get close enough.

Well I couldn't wait, strung her up and she sounds glorious! Very balanced, complex and just perfect.... to my ears anyway. I went with DR rares since I like their pure blues so much, so far I think they sound just as good as the martin marques I had been using for so many years. I'll have to do an a/b at some point. Bridge pins are still on the list, the ones that are in the guitar are chewed up and a bit loose which made changing strings take longer than it should have. Overall I'm a very happy camper

-Dave