Larrivée Laurel Limited Edition Acoustics
The Story So Far
At a performance held by the talented virtuoso Edgar Mönch Jr. in the late 1960’s classical guitar enthusiast Jean Larrivée listens on with great interest and admiration. After the performance Jean had the opportunity of meeting the world renowned German luthier, Edgar Mönch Sr. who, impressed with Jean’s genuine interest and enthusiasm for making guitars, took the young man on as an apprentice. Ever since that point and approximately 120,000 guitars later, Jean Larrivée & Co have continued to hand-build beautiful instruments using some of the skills passed on to him by his mentor.
Sourcing The Best Tonewoods
From his factory currently situated in Oxnard California, Jean Larrivée and his team produce high quality instruments using only the finest solid tonewoods: no ply, laminates or synthetic woods used here! Not only that but all woods used are sourced responsibly and are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. With his two sons holding the fort, Jean Larrivée is free to travel far and wide searching for hard-to-find quality tonewoods. For example the laurel which makes up the back and sides of these limited models is sourced from India.
Upon receiving our recent shipment of Larrivée guitars the first thing I noticed was the comfortable action straight out the box. We at Guitar Village go to great lengths to ensure every guitar reaches the player in ‘gig-ready’ condition with no tweaks or setting-up necessary so we appreciate a company who shares this same level of commitment. Larrivée guitars are consistently well built with clean edges and smooth finishing. Considering the instruments all-solid construction and inclusion of a quality hard-shell case, these acoustics offer amazing value for money. These points are evidence of Larrivée’s pledge of building ‘affordable luxury guitars’ aiming to put high-end instruments in the hands of all players.
The Laurel Limited Edition Series
Included in our recent shipment were various Larrivée Laurel Limited models. Available in four different body shapes suitable for all playing styles there’s literally something for everyone. Overlooked by other manufacturers, east Indian laurel has a similar grain to rosewood with a colour not unlike walnut. Tonally it sounds very similar to rosewood or blackwood giving you rich overtones and brilliant highs. Having tried the various different models I noticed they all had brilliant individual note separation even on the larger dreadnought-shaped D-03LA making all four models suitable for finger style or strumming. The dilemma you may face when choosing between these Larrivée Limited Laurel models will be based on whether you are singing and playing with other musicians and need extra volume or just playing at home or quite simply whether you find small body shapes more comfortable generally. Each of these instruments are painstakingly finished off with a beautiful hand inlaid laurel leaf head stock motif consisting of fifteen individually cut pieces. So to sum it up the Limited Laurel models have a beautiful brilliance and clarity to them with the larger bodied L03-LA and D03-LA providing at bit more depth, bass and volume. That coupled with a great action, faultless finishing all at a very affordable price make these Larrivée guitars a strong contender in the acoustic market place.
Working closely with Larrivée’s UK distributor, Sound Technology, Guitar Village looks forward to continuing a long and prosperous future with Larrivée Guitars.