Larrivee 6-string Fretless

This is a beautifull fretless 6 string bass with wafer thin maple fret position lines over a dark wood fretboard (Ebony?) It was hand made in Vancouver Canada in the mid eitghties. When contacted Larrivee didn't have much more to say about it. It sports a 3 piece laminated maple neck through with maple wings and a flame maple carve top and flame maple headstock face, the finish is see through forest green. I found out that the original bridge was design by Tompson Guitar fro the okanagan region of British Columbia however when I bought that bass it had been converted to a wide space 5 string fretless and that bridge was goneand the P style bridge EMG active had been replace with a McBride large humbucker. The nut was also missing as well as one of the Shaller tuner... I just got the bass back from Ruffus Island Guitar where it was for restoration and here's what he has done... Put in a new generic heavy duty bridge bought from Allparts, sanded the fretboard to get rid of the light sting marks that were there, fabricated an ebony nut, replaced the missing Shaler tuner, did a complete set up after a re-stringing with a Thomastik flatwound set, he also got renouned pickup builder Rod Evan to overhall the electronic and replace the McBride pickup with a special design Evans pickup. The electronic has as many Larrivee 2 volumes control (bridge & neck pickups) and a single active tone shift (bass to treble) and the pickup set now includes the original neck EMG active P and the Evan humbucker... The neck is flat and thin although obviously wide being a 6 string. The body shape is very similar to a Paul Reed Smith design...

I play mostly a mix of Jazz - Latin instrumental and some Afro - Pop music, I am an Eden endorser and use many of their products from DC112XLT combo to full festival size rig. The sound is amazingly versatile especially with just a tone balance control... I am abble to go from deep fretless sound to the caracteristic mid /hi oriented soloing tone with or no EQ change. There is some noise when pushing the treble which is normal with any bass. the bass is confortable to play sitting down as well as standing up but there is a slight neck heavy feeling to it when standing. I love the way this bass plays with great fel due to the slick neck, low action and flatwound strings. It is also cofortable to play with different finger positions and the tone changes with the positions is very noticeable...

Although the bass had been modified when I purchased it one could tell that it was very well made and of high quality both in components and craftmanship. As for now after the restauration the bass has regain it's quality feel and look with thaks again to Ruffus Island Shop and Rod Evans in Victoria BC Canada...

Well this bass has been played for at least 20 years and still looks solid and reliable. The original finish has withstand the years beautifully and although the bass sports few scratches here and there it still looks great. I will take this bass tonight to a gig without a backup which says that I am confident that it will play flawlesly...

Again I bought this bass used but I was desapointed with Larrivee attitude towards the whole Electric line that they have made for a period of time back in the eighties. It's as if it didn't happen (they know nothing about it or so they say) and it was hard to find any information about it. Only when I brought it in for the restauration did I found out more about their history from Ruffus Island Guitars...

I bought this bass 4 years ago but didn't play it much untill recently (fretless you know...) but I'm working on changing that. I've been playing bass for 37 years and I presently also own a Spector NSQ5 5 string and Fender Precision. My curent amplifiers include an Eden DC112XLT combo with D112XLT extension cabinet and an all Eden festival size rig consisting of a Navigator pre-amp, an WT1250 power amp driving one D410XLT and one D410XST cabinets. I would not hesitate to by this bass back if it was stolen or something. I fell in love with it's looks, originality, playing feel and quality...