Larrivee D-03WL

Satin finish walnut/spruce dreadnought with maple wood body binding and linen bound ebony fretboard on medium "C" shape mahogany neck with 20 medium/jumbo frets.
Compensated (for B) saddle on ebody bridge.
Larrivee sealed chrome tuners.
Signed label. Vancouver B.C. made.
Larrivee hardshell case included.

I play many styles on this guitar, from Flatpicking to Travis picking, and various musical genres including Jazz, Blues, Old Time String Band music, Country, Gospel, Popular Standards, and some original compositions I guess you could call Americana/Guitar Instrumentals.
I generally use standard tuning, but occasionally use open G for a couple of numbers.
I have had other walnut sides/back guitars including a cutom OM and a '39 Epiphone Spartan archtop.
I find the tone just right.
Mahogany is my usual choice for flat-top guitars, but I appreciate that the walnut takes a bit off the zingyness of the trebles and adds a rich upper mids component. The bass is robust and lower mids snappy too.
It can be loud when needed without fluffing out with lightguage strings.

Flawless.
Seams match.
Binding butts right where you'd expect it to (right behind the heel).
Everything lines up superbly and there are no "humps" in the neck.
The dovetail is flush. No gaps anywhere.
No shortcuts.
Action is great with no buzzes anywhere, and the sound is even all the way to quite high in register.

This is my only acoustic flat-top, though I have a couple of archtop electric guitars.
I have used Larrivees without backup on jobs.
No worries.
Simple proven elegant design.

I have had friendly correspondence via E-mail with Larrivee in the past, when I had a D-05 (just appreciative fan mail).

Usual industry standard limited lifetime warranty to original purchaser. Usual disclaimers: don't cook it, dry it, smoke it, chew on it, etc.

46 years experience. I usually play electric on jobs, but may record with this guitar. Otherwise it's a house guitar for couch noodling.
I have an electric archtop, semi-solid, and solidbody guitars for various uses. I generally play Jazz at resturants, bars, nightclubs, etc. Sometimes tuxedo jobs Showtunes, Bigband, et al.
I'm a Union sideman at large (with a day job).
I love the sound of this guitar.

I had kind of given up on dreadnoughts, and thought I might try a Jumbo size Guild F-50 or something less "focused" and midrangey, with more bass, even though OM size record better.
But F-50's and the like are about $2,000.
So I delayed quite awhile, then found this as the perfect solution.
I also tried the "L" version, but chose the dread as it was almost as balanced and had a bit more bass and power, which may bite me in the studio, but I'm willing to take that chance. After all, this is a guitar for ME mostly. Clients can accomodate me now, I figure.
Who knows, I may never get another call. But I'll still have a guitar that sounds great to ME!
I like that it sounds great with light guage strings. My OM (not a Larrivee) required mediums to sound decent.
A Martin D-18 I had years ago required new string sizzle all the time to sound good.
This sounds good for a month or more on phosphor light guage.
It has no onboard plug-in capability, nor will it be retro-fitted. I hate the sound of that stuff.
If I can't use a mic and get it done, I use an electric with magnetic pickups.
Has a lovely rich sound, and great playability.

finish is real thin satin i believe, dreadnought, ebony bridge/fingerboard, basically the same as most standard larrivees. top is solid sitka. what ios special about this is the back and sides are walnut, larrivee only made 75 of these and i was kucky enough to get my hands on one.

gets a nine because it has nothing fancy at all just a basic solid guitar but what do you want? i wanted the best guitar for the money and without question this was it - for me!

right now i play a little of everything. i originally bought the L-03WL which is the smaller body. supposed to be more for fingerstyle which i am really starting to get into because of tommy emmanuel - the god. but i took the l-03 home and i dont belive it is very good for strumming at all and the d-03 is still great for fingerstyle, if you can handle the size. what is great about the walnut is it is basically right in between the rosewood and mahogonay in terms of sound. so if you think mahogany is too bright and rosewood is too deep or you want something in between this is the one for you.

the guitar was great from the factory, set up was low but not too low. but... i recently took the 12 gauge and put 11's on it and i do get some buzzing every now and then but that takes 2 mins to put right

onloy had for a month cannot answer this but it seems real solid but be careful it dings very easy, put a tiny one in the back and didnt even know i had done it

these guys are great. because mine is limited edition it comes with a signed insert label, mine was only half a signature, think the pen ran out or something so i asked for a new one and it is on its way.

these list at $1549 and i got it for $900. dont think many people will get this deal but i haggled my ass off. i had a martin D-16 that i got from guitar center and it was still under the 30 money back gurantee. i didnt like the fact that now on some modela martin is using micarta for bridge and fingerboard. this larrivee sounded like a guitar 3 times its price and martin sounded about the price i paid for it. which was $900 also.
I will probably be the first and last to leave a review for this guitar because as you know only 75 were made so they are very rare. the great thing about these guitars if you can get one is they will be worth more in the short future, there are still a few around online and i definately reccomend them. The L-03 models feel better to hold but i played them both and listened to the store owner play both and the dread sounds much better - especially when flatpicked and store customers agreed. I spoke to people at larrivee and they said they have no plans for a re run of these as walnut is expensive for them because there is not much good enough walnut to use and the quantity they buy it in becomes real expensive. larrivee said these will appreciate too. if you can get your hands on one its well worth it!

mgrowc1@lsu.edu