...or "Happy Canada Day to Me!"
Yes, I've just completed another round of buying and selling. I realized that the 12-string, while a nice instrument, was a novelty that I wasn't playing much after the novelty had worn off.
I was also becoming more and more unsatisfied with acoustic #2 (the Recording King.) I love the specs on it - a smaller body guitar ("000" or "OM", as opposed to the bigger dreadnaught body shape), mahogany sides and back (contrasted to the Rosewood on my Martin), slightly wider nut. But the sound just wasn't great. I realized that the sound wasn't that different from my Washburn all-weather guitar - and if it's not markedly better, then it doesn't have a purpose.
So I thought that if I could sell the two of them, I might have enough money for a better #2 acoustic. CL served me wonderfully again - I not only sold both guitars, but also the little sailboat that's been gathering dust at the river for a few years now. That gave me a nice little war chest. Now what to spend it on?
I had an idea. I've seen a lot of very positive reviews of Larrivee guitars on the forums, especially their base OM guitars. Then I had a chance to hear a Larrivee at fiddle camp, and was very impressed. But I wanted to see and play one before ordering one blindly. A web search of dealers turned up nothing close by. Flash of inspiration - the twice-a-year guitar expo was here last weekend. Maybe I could see one there.
As it turned out, I could. Among all the crazily-priced vintage guitars, I found one guy with two new Larrivees: a standard-sized L-03R ("R" for rosewood), and an OM-40R. I played the OM-40R for a while, and seriously thought about buying it on the spot. But I wasn't certain, and in the end just couldn't pull the trigger.
Larrivee is a Canadian company, though despite the French name (there's an accent on the first "e" that I don't know how to make on this keyboard) they're from British Columbia. So Darling Wife and I had some fun with the fact that my new Canadian beauty arrived on Canada Day.
My first impression is entirely positive. It has a clear, bright sound - a world's difference better than the Recording King (though that's not a fair comparison - the Larrivee is just a better class of guitar.) To Darling Wife's question of why I need a #2 acoustic when there's a Martin in the house - it has nothing to do with need. The Martin is #1, and this doesn't imply the slightest dissatisfaction with it. It's just something different. And I'll take it places I might not take the Martin - like the River. But I wouldn't take it camping or to the Folk Fest.
I'm going to give it some intensive playing this weekend, just to make sure it's a keeper. But I think it is.
Alt + 130 = é
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