Larrivee D-03R

My DO3-R was made in 2003 by Larrivee. The rosewood body is satin (as they all are) and looks very simple and plane. NO frills but im not going for looks im going for the sound. After all isn't that the idea?

I have been playing guitar for about 35 years. I thought only a Martin or guitars above three grand could have a sound this good! I play all kinds of music, and the DO3-R fills the full spectrum. The neck is thin as a electric and you don't need to play with C-clamp style to get clear clean tones. I compared this guitar (with a friend Jeff Gossard who is a studio owner oporator) with every high end guitar at the local music shop and nothing compared with it's sound. He ended up buying one that day for his studio.

The feel of this I would compare to your first sexual experiance,great!It was perfect from the factory. No strange have to get use to it stuff, this was like butter melting on my corn. The finish was perfect and smooth. The action right in the middle. No buzzing or need for adjustment. I tried other strings, and the folks at Larrivee are right about using Elixer strings.

Live playing? yes you could pound the crap out of this on stage or in a studio (like I have) and it comes through clean and not booming in the bass end. Construction of this instrument is better than Martin and Taylor. I have three flat tops and the other two now collect dust.

I have had no problems with the guitar, but have had contact with the company and they are very helpful with all questions I had. I like the lifetime warranty, and im sure it will never need any repairs unless mistreated.

With the 35 years under my belt, Gibson, Conn, Yamaha, Hamer and all the other guitars I have or had I rate this one the best and favorite. If it were stolen I would have to hunt down the horse thief and hang him! But yes I would replace it in a heartbeat with another. Martin move over Larrivee has out done and out classed you on this guitar! To end this I would say it's like the old sleeper cars of the 70's looks plane and simple, but will donmenate anything in it's path!

Ok, here's the thing: it's a simple acoustic, no bells or whistles, just a fine tone, hence the low rating here. No real inlay to speak of, but a nice ebony board to be sure, satin finish, roeswood back and sides, and a spruce top. The top isn't the most lavish I've ever seen, but for $700 bucks what can I say.

Perfect. Sounds as good as any guitar for twice the cash. If you're looking at a Taylor or Martin, I highly suggest checking these guitars out first.

Came strung with Elixirs right out of the box, the intonation was great right from the factory. Perfect. The frets are nice, no buzz, ends finished nicely. Binding looks good.

Came w/ hardshell case and I keep it in there w/ a humidifier. Should hold up with care. I take care of my acoustics, but with this price if it gets banged around, I won't loose any sleep.

don't know, won't call them unless it comes unglued in the next couple of months

Lost or stolen, yep I would buy another right off the bat. I can't believe the value of this guitar. Go buy one. You won't regret it. I saw one go used on Ebay for $20 less than I paid for a new one. I love it, and will hang on to it until it can't go anymore.

All solid construction. Solid Spruce top, Solid Rosewood back and sides. NO LAMINATES! Maple body binding is nice, considering it is a plain looking guitar. Just your basic dreadnought. No cutaway, no pickup. Ebony fretboard and bridge are added bonuses to solid construction. Very smooth one-piece mahogany neck. This guitar is no frills, so I can't rate it a ten, but the construction is excellent. I also like the satin finish rather than the more popular gloss finishes on other comparable guitars. You've probably heard it elsewhere, but I just don't like the way gloss finishes effect the tone of some guitars.

The sound is incredible! This is the good thing about Larrivee guitars: All their guitars sound excellent. I flatpick and fingerpick, strum and play lead lines, and this guitar delivers whatever I need. Great treble and bass. Very loud guitar. Volumewise, it blows away any other guitar in the room if your jammn' out w/ buddies. I haven't installed any pickups or anything yet. I'm still looking for the right one. Besides, I just sit on my balcony and pick away into the Texas evening.

I have seen other 03-series Larrivees, and there was always something wrong... a bad fret, a finish blem, etc. But mine is flawless. The particular guitar I have was made in Dec. '03 for the '04 NAMM show in Vegas. It was a display model and it has the most incredible bearclaw top I have ever seen, so you can imagine that they polished this one up pretty good. No complaints here, really. Also, the action came a little high, but was easily adjusted to the near perfect to perfect range with a short flick of the wrist on the truss rod wrench.

The guitar is only like 6 months old, so not much to say here. It's been good so far, though.

I have to give Larrivee a 10. They are really good at working with customers. I know this from personal experience. They have always responded quickly to e-mails and are quite pleasant to deal with.

I have been playing for 10 years. I have mainly been an electric guitar player. I have been the lead player for a few traveling groups. I have played in front 10 people. I have played in front of 10,000 people (numerous occasions, not just one fluke gig). I have travelled all over Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Mexico, yada, yada, yada.... I have played Jazz, Blues, Rock, Metal (just a phase, it passed quickly), Latin (that would be the Mexico tour mentioned above), and Praise and Worship music. Basically, I know what I'm doing and I know my way around a guitar neck. I have owned a couple of American Strats, Gibson Les Paul, Jackson (the Metal phase, yuck!), Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100 head and cab, vintage Fender tube combo, Peavey tube amp, Fender Blues Jr., ok enough already. Bottom line... I love this Larrivee guitar. It is such a great instrument. Very balanced guitar that sounds like it costs $3000. If I lost this guitar I would buy another Larrivee. Maybe not the D-03R, but I would buy a higher end Larrivee. I was originally going to purchase a -05 series or -09 series Larrivee, but I saw this one and the bearclaw top almost made me faint. Great guitar.

This is a plain jane guitar so it gets no marks for abalone and mother of pearl but it does feature all solid woods and North American construction. The satin finish is a good choice for a cheap finish. It doesn't compromise the sound and the manufacturer saves quite a bit on labour costs.

If we put a pre-war D-28 as a 10 this guitar does not even come clsoe. It is a good sounding guitar but nit a great one. I find the guitar somewhat muddy in the middle but with nice highs and a decent bass. Tome it works better for rhythm than for picking lead lines. The main strength of this guitar is its versatility. It works for all kinds of music and for fingerpicking and flatpicking. I find it tends to top out if driven hard though.

The stock action was too low for my preference and the neck has a very slight back bow, meaning the truss rod tension must be set as low as possible. The glue joint between the fingerboard and the top is slightly sloppy. Inside it looks fine and seems to be a well constructed instrument.

I have only had the guitar for two years so it is tough to assess this. It seems solid and I would not worry about bringing this guitar to any gig or festival

I have not had to deal with the company.

I have been playing for about ten years and I bought this guitar because it was cheap, made on this continent and Rosewood. It is my everyday guitar that I feel I can take anywhere. It is not vintage and if it gets stolen I can always go get another one. Definitely the best feature about this guitar is the low price. While not on par with the best acoustic guitars in the world, the sound, quality and materials are fantastic given what you pay. A perfect knockaround everyday guitar.

This is a stripped-down guitar. It's EXACTLY what I was looking for. 2001 model, all-solid (as are all Larrivees), with spruce, rosewood/rosewood and a mahogany neck. Ebony fretboard and bridge. Saddle and nut are synthetic. The binding is wood pulp-- that's right, it's not plastic. The guitar is amazing, but it's definitely stripped-down. The features score does NOT reflect the quality of the guitar at all. If you're looking for flash, look elsewhere and look HIGHER. You won't find it in this price range if you want a good guitar. This guitar has a great satin finish.

This guitar is near perfect, tonally. The range, resonance, and balance are amazing. I play this guitar for everything, from classic rock, country, and folk, to praise & worship. By the way, this is a loud guitar, so if you're looking to lead music for a group, it's perfect. It's bright and clear, and whether you're flat-picking, fingerpicking, or strumming, this guitar produces a wonderful sound.

I put an L.R. Baggs I-beam (active) in this baby (it comes with no electronics), but there's really no reason anyone should ever plug this guitar into a system if you can mic it. The sound is so incredible that it's a shame when I have to suffer the I-beam.

The action on this guitar is wonderful. It's low, but not too low. Actually, I was worried that the factory would produce this guitar like so many of its rivals, with ridiculously low action. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is my D03R a pleasure to play, it's also pleasantly loud and resonant. Again, it was exactly what I wanted.

There's nothing on this guitar that I doubt. It's reliable to the last.

I'm a 12-year vet. I've owned enough acoustic guitars in my day (and played enough others) to know that this is, without a doubt, bar-none, unquestionably, the best value you can get on a high-quality instrument. I'd stack it up against any rival, any day, in any category except 'features'. I bought this guitar to be a fantastic instrument that doesn't scream, "I spent tons of money!" And I didn't spend tons of money to get it.

This guitar was made in 2001 I think. Bought it new from the Guitar Center in Seattle, great bunch of Folks. I bought the D-03R because I needed a reliable flatpicking guitar to hold up to strong Celtic backup playing and I only had under a Grand to spend. This guitar has no laminations, solid Rosewood back and sides, nice Spruce top with a Mahogany neck, ebony fretboard and bridge. But a Plain-Jane guitar as they go. This is no problem to me because the feature I wanted was the tone of this thing! Great Rosewood guitar value!!

I'm a Fingerstyle - Flatpicker, Celtic, Blues and some Bluegrass, which means I pick for whatever the song calls for. The action was a bit low and there was some initial buzzing and honking while playing in the higher registers. After I raised the action a bit it played fine, fast and accurate all the way up the neck. This guitar opens up when you play hard, which is what you'd expect from a Rosewood unit. After playing everything in 6 stores that went for $1900.00 and under, I picked this guitar over most, and at what I paid, it was clearly the best. Normally a Mahogany guitar fan, this Rosewood just blows them away for Flatpicking, and I own 3 other nice (Mahogany) acoustics by Martin, Taylor and Gibson.

As I mentioned, the action came in a little low. After I added a Piezo pickup, the action came up a bit and the buzzing stopped and the volume increased! Larrivee makes a great guitar even at the pace of production they must be trying to maintain. This guitar was near perfect. I may want to have the frets dressed one of these days, they don't look perfect and may have contributed to those 'Honks' I'd get.

After 30 years of trying to be a good guitarist, my playing is still mostly done in someones living room. I do play festivals during the summer and that is exactly why I bought this specific guitar, it appears extremely reliable and sounds as good as any newer Martin under $2000.00 (Can I say that online?). I always bring my Martin D18 to the festivals because of the 'Snob' factor around those Bluegrass guys but I doubt I'd need a back up for this Larrivee.

Can't rate this, only had the beast for a month. The last Larrivee I had (Stolen), never needed a thing after 5 years.

I own too many guitars (yes, it's possible). All of them are name brand, well made guitars - Taylor 314ce, Martin D18VS, Martin 16SGT, Gibson J50, Fender P-bass, Liberty Dobro, Fender American Strat, Peavey Delta Blues and Bassman 100 for amps. Just sold a Hamer P90 Goldtop and in the process of buying a Tricone from National, selling the J50 soon (not all that great for the $$). The 314CE is great amplified and the Martins are what I fingerpick. I bought this guitar to really play hard and have fun with. This will be the last of it's kind I'll buy but I'd replace it in a heartbeat with another Rosewood D3 model if stolen. This guitar is the best Rosewood Dreadnaught value out there!!

2000 model, made in Vancouver Canada, Dreadnaught body style -- spruce top, rosewood back and sides, ebony fretboard, ebony bridge. I had to buy the case -- bought it at Guitar Center. Overall, I like GC but these cats don't give you aything for free.

The only reason I give a 7 for features is because this is the BARE BONES, folks. No mother of pearl inlays, fancy gold-plated tuners, no diamond-studded bridge-pins, etc. I would have liked a prettier guitar, but lately I've become too much of a tone freak to compromise sound over looks. I give it a 7 to be objective about it.

I play mostly solo acoustic - folk, folk-rock, folk-pop, folk-whatever, etc. -- I'm a singer and a strummer, not much fingerpicking, and the D-03R fits my playing style well. When you're the only one on stage, the sound has to be full. The D-03R has a really full sound - the bass is clear and deep, the highs are nice and crispy. It's sound when strummed is a smooth, nicely blended tone. I've got a high tenor voice, and the guitar fills in the necessary spaces to make my nasally white boy voice sound alot better than it really is.

I use a Fender Passport PA system on stage, and I play the guitar miked straight into that -- I've never been in a band situation with an acoustic guitar and so I don't have much use for amps and pickups, and to tell you the truth, I've never gotten a good acoustic sound through an amp or a pickup, but I'm too lazy to try really hard, so don't take my word for it.

It sounds great, nice and clear and not overwhelming.

The action was perfect for me -- low, but not low enough to rattle the frets. No flaws that I could see -- it seems to have been put together well.

The tuning pegs work smoothly, and I've played the thing for hours and hours at a time and I usually don't have to tune it.

It's also very light -- my previous acoustic was a Charvel 625 acoustic/electric, and although the Charvel is not a heavy guitar, I noticed the difference when I strapped on the Larrivee.

Again, the only reason I can't give it a perfect score is the blandness of it's looks -- it's well made but not pretty.

To be perfectly honest, I've had the thing for about a month now, so I'm not sure about overall durability. I can tell you that it seems like a guitar that, if not bounced around alot, will be a family heirloom long after I've gone to the Great Open Mike Night in the Sky.

Haven't dealt with Larrivee yet, but I'd like to know if they all have French accents, so I'm gonna call them up soon just for fun.

I've been playing guitar for about ten years now, most of it as an acoustic player. I currently own a Charvel 625 acoustic/electric guitar, a 199-something Fender Stratocaster, and a little Epiphone amplifier -- I've had much better gear in the past but due to theft and acts of God, my nice collection was greatly reduced.

I'm a singer/songwriter (which is just fancy talk for a pretty good musician who can't find any other people who like the same kind of music to play with) My songs are mostly all acoustic, Toad the Wet Sprocket/Barenaked Ladies/Smiths-esque, so a smooth sounding and playing acoustic guitar is a must. The D-03R fits the bill.

I played every acoustic guitar under $1000 in the store
trying to decide which one to buy -- Martins, Taylors, Larrivees, etc. etc. It was a choice between the Larrivee and a Taylor -- the Taylor sounded great, but the Larrivee was a smoother play....and Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies, my favorite band, plays a Larrivee, so that kind of swayed me a bit.

There's not much I would change about this guitar -- it's a spectacular value for the money I paid for it, considering that the $1500-$3500 range guitars didn't sound much better than the D-03R did at $899. I would probably jazz up the looks a bit, but for the sound this baby makes, it can stay ugly.

One thing that I really love: it has a strap-knob thingie (see how technically inclined I am?) underneath the neck so you don't have to tie the end of the strap onto the headstock.

If I lost this guitar, I would cry, beat my head against the wall many times, and then go out and buy another one. If it were stolen, I'd have the sorry SOB that stole it drawn and quartered. I might, at some point, scrape up the cash to buy a higher-end model, but it will most likely be another Larrivee.

My D-03R was purchased about new in 1999. All solid wood, spruce top, rosewood back/sides, ebony fretboard and bridge. It has a matte finish, clear pickguard. It is very spartan from a cosmetics point of view -- tiny dot fretboard inlays, black body binding and a very simple rosette. Some have called the overall look "understated", but you might also call it "plain jane". Mine came with a good quality hardshell case.

Its clear the Larrivee concentrated the money and effort in this guitar into the features that affect the tone -- good solid woods and solid craftsmanship. This price for an all-solid-wood, rosewood guitar is a very good deal.

Ample volume, nice jangly highs and strong bass response. Mine sounds somewhat attenuated in the midrange. The high-end is terrific and rich in harmonics; very nice. Because of the mid-range reponse, I find my guitar works better for strumming rather than fingerpicking. I use medium gauge (.13) strings to improve the guitar's power and punch. The matte finish causes noise from your clothing to be amplified through the guitar; a well-known problem with matte finishes. But that hasn't been a major issue for me.

Overall, my guitar produces a nice pleasing sound. However, given that I tend to play a lot of single-note lead lines, the mahogany back/side D-03 model would have probably been a better fit for me. I think its stronger midrange response would fatten the sound of single note lines and just work better for that style of playing. I think you could make a case that the fault is really with me for buying what turned out to be the wrong model, not with Larrivee for building a flawed product. Nonetheless, I wish my guitar had a strong midrange response, so my rating has to reflect that.

The action on mine is perfect -- fairly low but not buzzy. It should be noted that I had the dealer set mine up before I took delivery of it and we talked at some length about the way I wanted it done. If you buy a decent quality guitar from a dealer, I believe you have the right to ask for this service and I highly recommend you do so. Anyway, from a craftsmanship point of view, my guitar is extremely well constructed. Clean joints and a well-leveled fretboard. Decent finish work; just one flaw that I could find -- a small dimple on the back of the neck. What I've seen of the inside of the body looks clean and neat. My only complaint, and its a minor one, is that the frets could have been more finely polished. I like them to be shiny and slick; my D-03R's fret, while well-shaped and leveled, aren't that finely polished. On my first string change, I polished myself with #0000 steel wool.

I've had it for two years. Played it a lot and gig with it moderately. Its been very reliable.

I haven't had to deal with the company so I can't comment much on their support. They do have a lifetime warranty on their guitars, which is obviously very nice.

I did a lot of research trying to find the best sounding dreadnought I could for under $1000. I looked at all the usual suspects. It came down to the entry-level Taylor or an 03-series Larrivee. I chose the Larrivee because the woods they use in their entry level models are well-known for tone and how they age -- I wasn't very interested in alternative woods.

This is a late model (1999 I believe) D-03 Rosewood dreadnaught, purchased online from a Canadian music store, in excellent/barely used condition. I have had this guitar ~1 month. See Larrivee's website for all official specs. Guitar has a very light-colored solid spruce top, solid rosewood body, and satin finish w/ clear pickguard; nice ivoroid-bound fretboard, bound body, (I believe) ebony fretboard and bridge, black plastic bridge pins, metal end pin, Larrive chrome tuners, synthetic (tusq?) bone-like nut and bridge. Neck I would call a comfortable medium heft. Fretboard has very small pearl microdot markers. The guitar included a good quality but non-Larrivee hard case, neck adjustment tool, and larrivee guitar booklet. Very nice and clean, but understated appointments and appearance; nothing fancy but a good rating is deserved in comparison to other similarly priced guitars.

Dealers as well as other owners, including virtually all the other reviews here on Harmony, give raving scores (~10) for the sound. I have to grade it more conservatively. I had played a couple other Larrivees, incl. a standard mahogany D-03 whose power and punch really impressed me. I went after this one for bluegrass picking, expecting the rosewood to offer even more volume and bass. Its volume is good but I would say not exceptional; picked notes have a good clean sound and it is light and responsive, but it falls noticeably short of the more expensive but clearly bigger-sounding Martin D-28s which predominate in bluegrass jams. Tonally it is interesting; deep and woody and darkish, but even the highs though clear are not bright sounding. The tones in the different low, mid, and high spectra don't seem to mix or blend much. I like the sound more when playing alone than when it is mixed in with other guitars. This is the first rosewood dreadnought I have owned, and really have only heard them as a listener and not as a player; I may have misunderstood what sort of tone to expect, but it doesn't have the volume and punch I hoped for given all the rave reviews. The guitar is still very new as far as playing time, so I may not have yet given it a full chance to express itself.

The guitar is nicely and carefully finished. The woods have nice graining, the body and fretboard binding is seamless. The visual appearance is great in my opinion, with the dark rosewood body and ebony FB and headstock veneer really standing out nicely against the light spruce top. Nothing in the construction or finishing appears sub-par and in fact is very good and clean. The clear pickguard takes some getting used to. I like the idea and the appearance of the top without a thick, dark plastic pickguard. However, I don't understand why they use this funny, almost square shape; it doesn't extend past or protect the top above the middle of the soundhole. I would like to see the standard teardrop shape. As far as playability, the setup of this guitar falls disappointingly short in several regards. The neck appears to be adjusted well/normally, with just a bit of relief, the fretboard seems good and flat, and the frets are smooth and comfortable. The action, however, is set up uncomfortably high, especially at the bridge/saddle. Even so, there is very little room to take the saddle down, as these guitars have a taller than usual bridge profile and an already low saddle height. Bar chords are difficult to play cleanly up the neck. A couple of the lower frets are not quite clean or level, giving some annoying string buzz when fretting normally or just capoing is around the 2nd-4th frets or so, even though the action at the 14th fret is at least medium to medium-high, and lowering the saddle would only make this worse. Since I play bluegrass, I have tolerated this initially, and changing to medium strings reduced (but not eliminated) the buzz in the lower frets. Still, this is subpar setup bordering on outright poor, given that these guitars are almost uniformly described as having low, comfortable action. Only the fact I am mainly flatpicking make it tolerable. I haven't been able to fix it with minor twiddling and will probably need at least a few frets leveled and a new setup.

Even given the moderate rating above, I am giving this guitar a good tryout at jams to work it in and give it a chance to grow on me tonally. Though light in weight it feels nice and solid and I don't have any reservations so far about its durability. Tuners appear to be good quality. The finish is very light and so is going to be susceptible to scratches and dings. There is no reason why it wouldn't be fine in solo or group performing. I will rate it well based on my impressions although the guitar has still had very little use.

No direct dealings, only with the Larrivee website which is very good. This guitar is not warranteed as I got it used.

I own 4-5 other acoustic guitars, including Guilds and a Martin, that all had comparable prices if new ($800-$1100). Like this Larrivee, all were bought used through ads at substantial savings. I based my assessment and decision to buy them on playing other guitars, though of the same or similar model, in music stores/shops, counting on the consistency between individual instruments. This expectation carries some risk and proved at least a little disappointing in several cases. Each of them is pretty good to very good in some aspects, and each falls short of being the perfect, no-regrets purchase. All were good or even great buys overall, but it was maybe unrealistic to think that an individual $800 guitar is going to turn out to be perfect. I'm still in the guitar-trial stage. I like having several, but may eventually opt for one really good $1500 Taylor instead of two $800 Larrivees or Martins. As with my other instruments, I only wish I could have had the best of both worlds: a chance to play several and pick the best but still with the same savings. I would still like to try a Larrivee, but if I could do it over, I think it was a mistake to pay for the more expensive rosewood. I would shoot to save another couple hundred to try the regular D03, which might be more to my preference of bright yet loud acoustic sound. So if you're out there with a nice loud mahogany D03....

1998 Canadien model, dreadnought body style, ebony fret board and headstock, clear pick guard, rosewood sides and back. came with no controls, and a very low action, which is great. satin finish. thinner neck which provides very fast action. i didnt want all the bells and whistels. this guitar stands on its own merit, and needs none of the extras to make it sound any better than it does. less is WAY better in this case. just the nice woods and finsih were what i was after. this guitar looks so good, and plays/sounds that much better. that in and of itslef is worth twice the price...but it wasn't!!

i have only played acoustic guitars (5 years), and i have taken very few lessons. i have my own style, which probably makes theorists and purists scoff, but i dont play for them, i play for myself. knwing this, the do3-r could not be a btter guitar. the action, the neck, the sound, and it seems that the more i learn (from styles of music, to styles of playing) the more suited this guitar is to me. it just sounds better and better every time i play it. the sound is so rich and full, and i have been unable to reproduce it picking up any other guitar, even higher priced larrivees.

action is awesome. i have smaller hands, so the thinner neck suites me well. no matter the music, be it finger picked blues, or rock, the action is great for all occassions.

fit and finish are very solid. i do have slight seperation at the dovetasil, but this is in no way affecting the sound, and with the lifetime garauntee, i am not at all worried that larrivee wont make it good, should it come to that. i do have trouble keeping the b string in tune, but this is not uncommon from what i have seen with other guitars. there is also some fret buzz, but this should be taken care of with a tune up, no pun intended.

the wood is gorgeous, and the satin finish is perfect!! the underdog of the acoustic world!!

it is a rather light guitar, but is is solid. i do not play out much, but would have no worries if i did. this thing is a trooper! the wood, finish, etc are all very solid. i added a strap button, and so far it is right on. i would gig w/o backup. im not there yet, but i will be! no worries at all.

i have not yet experienced customer support yet.

I have been playing for 5 years. i own only the larrivee, and have a fender acoustisonic30 (AWESOME amp!!), and a VOX wah-wah (846). yes, i play thorugh a wah-wah with my acoustic. save your remarks until you have experimented with the set up!! i also added fishman amp, internal, no cutting into the body. no eq, just the amp.

i bought this guitar after looking at taylor, fender, martin, guild, gibson, etc. it was the best sounding by far, and i still go into guitar center and try to find something that sounds better. here i am, almost three years later, still looking. 1500, 2500, 5000. nothing compares in my opinion, period.
the sound, the looks, the quality, the value, the sound, the sound, the sound...get the picture here????
if this got stolen, i wouldnt buy another one....i would hunt down whoever stole it!!! i love this guitar!!!!!!