NGD - Larrivee P-03

thomasross20 · January 2023

So I have famously gone back on what I said some weeks ago about not wanting any 12-fret or smaller parlour guitars! I got my OM40 for the bit extra bass and to be able to lug to partner's house but an OM is still a bit big to be doing that. Had my eye on this little thing for a while...

So to recap, I like mahogany.
All my acoustics now are mahogany with sitka spruce top which I believe brings out magic in the trebles.
Second fave probably walnut which has thundering bass but not the same quack & sparkle as mahogany.
The mahogany & sitka spruce combination is punchy and mahogany has a real twang to it, lots of character.
More than enough overtones for my ears. Other woods have way too many overtones for my ears.
All are also satin and I quite like that.
Satin + mahogany also thankfully equals more affordable, too!

My OM-02 sounds magical. Had it 20 years and it's perfect. Best bang for buck Larrivee out there imo.

The OM-40 with new bracing is a different beast completely. Sounds different to traditionally braced Larrivee.
I definitely notice the increase in bass. This one is getting nut lowered and fret job but intonation is spot on.
It feels very tight - I am very interested to hear what it sounds like after 1-2 years of playing and opening up.

The P-03 is a different beast but a serious machine. No toy - a proper recording guitar.
I love its small size. It's exactly what I wanted - looks very cute, easily transportable, light.
Build is impeccable - maple trim is lovely, everything about it screams "class."
It has that parlour type of sound - I'm loathe to say boxy. It sounds quite full.

On some YouTube videos people just don't hit the bass string properly - you do get bass out of this thing.
Not bass like an OM, though. If you try to hit the string harder to get more bass out, you do get the fret clang - but not like my OM40's present fret BUZZ. Due to smaller scale, you just need to hit it lighter.

So maybe 12-56 would be good (heavier bass strings) as right now it has 12-53s.
12s on the parlour feels like 11s on the OM.

I noticed the bridge pins pop up more than they do on my OMs - not sure why, but they're uniform.

It has the magical Larrivee mahogany sound (mahogany IS Larrivee for me). But not deep like an OM - sounds super sweet and fingerstyle in particular on it sounds SUPER cool.

I'm aware the O40 is the same guitar with newer bracing so will have more bass, but I love that magical Larrivee ring/chime/magic with the original bracing so I love this.

I can see why some would go for rosewood as it would give this guitar more of that "echo/resonance" (again too much hurts my ears - I find mahogany overtones perfect) but crucially deeper bass. BUT rosewood single note lines don't have the character I'm going for, whereas mahogany does have that.

The nut height is perfect. No buzzy frets that I can detect.

-- Unfortunately the G string intonation is slightly flat at 12th fret (about 1 cent) and I can just hear it BUT every other string perfect and it's not bad - you have to strain to hear it - nothing major and a new bone nut in future would remedy. FYI it comes with bone nut already & saddle.

1.75 nut width is great and you can definitely feel the slightly closer spacing that this guitar has at the bridge.
Not good, not bad - just ever so slightly different. I just tried it with the thumb pick and you do have to adjust to to the slightly closer strings. Also palm-muted thumb pick bass has less oomph than an OM (as you'd expect).

This guitar is FUN to play. You see it sitting there and want to pick it up.

I CAN still play up to fret 17 (which I do..) if I stretch a bit, no biggie. So maybe a cutaway not be all and end all? Saying that, I'd love to try one... cutaway on PV-0x makes it look like would be hard to balance on knee as the body is small enough as-is so with extra cut out, not sure how easy it is to sit on knee - I'd love to try.

The heel being closer causes more of an "issue" if you are not used to 12-fret guitars, as is harder to barre up in that area.

Going back to a 14-fret OM, my arm feels extended a whole lot more. I can see how people can prefer 12 fret instruments. With gauge 12 strings on, very easy to play. The 12-fret sound actually does sound fantastic - I'd say better than a 14-fret guitar.

Again, the sound is sublime. I checked out Baranik, Collings, Goodall etc.. their parlours can just sound like normal guitars (that's fine if you want that but I have full size guitars... and cost many multiples of the P-03!!) whereas I prefer this parlour guitar sound, if that makes sense. Value for money imo.

I am pretty sure I also prefer this to the GS Mini I had at one stage.

I can understand why people love the OO40 as for that little bit bigger guitar it does seem to give a lot more bass. So I get that - and I'd love to try one out side by side to check the size difference. But then I already have the OM-type sound... I actually WANT this parlour sound, and this IS smaller and that's also exactly what I wanted.

This thing does do strumming! I think it's strength will be fingerstyle with bare fingers.

P.S. I would love to try an all mahogany parlour with cutaway. I saw one online with these swirls instead of fret dots and it looked super fancy.

I regret leaving it so long to buy this and I'm so glad I did (and I bought it blind which is always a risk).
Absolutely fantastic and couldn't be happier.

thomasross20 · January 2023

Cryptid · January 2023

Happy NGD!

I'm with you on the sitka / mahogany combo. I really have tried to get along with rosewood - rich and enticing at first but then the overtones start to grate and 'compete' with vocals when accompanying. A good hog guitar never seems to get in the way and has just the right balance of overtones, for my ears anyway.

Enjoy

Mellish · January 2023

@thomasross20 ; nice collection.

Re the pins sitting higher: all 6 or just the wound?

bertie · January 2023

check the ball-ends arent caught under the pin end, I experimented with 13s tuned down a semi when I had the Faith - really opened up the tone, but it did affect the intonation and tuning stability using a capo - there may be an explanation for that, or none at all, but it certainly was noticible

thomasross20 · January 2023

Thanks, guys - actually the worst wood combo for my ears was the lacewood Larrivee that I got. Brilliant guitar but (and I'm not joking) I got a headache playing it as the overtones were overbearing. Maybe I've just got sensitive ears. It's amazing how much difference bracing and body size makes as these all sound like different guitars.

Just checked and all pop up but wound ones the most (so not actually perfectly level) - no issue but something I noticed.

This thing sounds and feels a lot better than the Terry Pack parlour I had briefly.

thomasross20 · January 2023

bertie said:

check the ball-ends arent caught under the pin end, I experimented with 13s tuned down a semi when I had the Faith - really opened up the tone, but it did affect the intonation and tuning stability using a capo - there may be an explanation for that, or none at all, but it certainly was noticible

Good point. No issue for now, tbh.
BTW I keep forgetting, this is a good point.. to use a capo on my 14-fret OM I get a sweeter tone. Not the same as a 12-fret as the bridge isn't so far down for that "optimal placement" but the heel is further down and 14 fret access. Just harder to bend with a capo (if you're into that thing).

Mellish · January 2023

Sometimes, too, the pin slots can be too narrow and the pins are pushed up by the strings double winding at the ball ends. Easily corrected by rubbing sandpaper in the slots.

enjo · January 2023

These are such fantastic guitars.
A P-01 ISS is probably the only thing that might tempt me out of my Martin 0-15M.

Dave_Mc · January 2023

Excellent!

thomasross20 · January 2023

Have to say this is probably my fave out of all my guitars - you walk past the thing and immediately want to pick it up to play and that's how it should be. Sounds great and been an amazing buy.

ditchboy · January 2023

That OM-40 looks tasty.

thomasross20 · January 2023

ditchboy said:

That OM-40 looks tasty.

It's good - the bass really thunders.
OM body size is plenty big for me. It's amazing each of these guitars has the same woods but sounds so different!

Mellish · January 2023

thomasross20 said:

ditchboy said:

That OM-40 looks tasty.

It's good - the bass really thunders.
OM body size is plenty big for me. It's amazing each of these guitars has the same woods but sounds so different!

Well you'll often read it on here that you can take two identical Gibson, Martins etc (same build day, same month, same woods, same year, same strings brand) but a pound to a penny that they won't sound the same...

They can't.

ToneControl · January 2023

do you play with plectrum, nails, skin?

ditchboy · January 2023

thomasross20 said:

ditchboy said:

That OM-40 looks tasty.

It's good - the bass really thunders.
OM body size is plenty big for me. It's amazing each of these guitars has the same woods but sounds so different!

OM is the perfect size I think. I don’t need anything bigger.

thomasross20 · January 2023

ToneControl said:

do you play with plectrum, nails, skin?

All three plus thumb pick lol.

guitarjack66 · January 2023

I saw Dylan playing the Newport(USA,not Wales!)Festival in 1964 on a smaller bodied guitar, so I have no idea why its taken so long for the snobbishness over smaller bodied guitars to subside.

bertie · January 2023

guitarjack66 said:

I saw Dylan playing the Newport(USA,not Wales!)Festival in 1964 on a smaller bodied guitar, so I have no idea why its taken so long for the snobbishness over smaller bodied guitars to subside.

what snobbishness ? On here perhaps from some of the "dread or dead" brigade

Image: /plugins/EmojiExtender/emoji/fb/smiley.png

Small bodied have always been rated/used/chosen by a lot of great players - back when I started in the mid 70s people like Stefan Grossman, Clapton, James Taylor, later Knopfler to name but a few, all used smaller (than dreads) guitars

I think its just that dreads just seem to be (or were) "more readily available" and what people associate with an acoustic, so that's what they buy - or are you saying the people playing small bodied are "snobbish" ?

guitarjack66 · January 2023

bertie said:

guitarjack66 said:

I saw Dylan playing the Newport(USA,not Wales!)Festival in 1964 on a smaller bodied guitar, so I have no idea why its taken so long for the snobbishness over smaller bodied guitars to subside.

what snobbishness ? On here perhaps from some of the "dread or dead" brigade

Small bodied have always been rated/used/chosen by a lot of great players - back when I started in the mid 70s people like Stefan Grossman, Clapton, James Taylor, later Knopfler to name but a few, all used smaller (than dreads) guitars

I think its just that dreads just seem to be (or were) "more readily available" and what people associate with an acoustic, so that's what they buy - or are you saying the people playing small bodied are "snobbish" ?

The opposite. I'm saying that the attitude to playing smaller bodied acoustic seems to be snobbish and you 'have to have' a larger bodied instrument to get the sound or projection needed.

bertie · January 2023

guitarjack66 said:
The opposite. I'm saying that the attitude to playing smaller bodied acoustic seems to be snobbish and you 'have to have' a larger bodied instrument to get the sound or projection needed.

yeah, those were my first thoughts, not sure its a "snobbery" thing tho , just that some believe that tone from a smaller body is considerably "missing" certainly for long/heavy strumming sessions - some could argue the opposite of course, that "big" guitars are bass heavy when picking ! or just generally For me, its 90% a comfort thing, and the perceived loss of low end, i snt a problem for my ears and with my playing style Thats not to say, the feel of picking up a big super jumbo and hitting out some big major chords isnt "pleasurable" - just I wouldnt want or need one as my normal guitar ( s)

thomasross20 · January 2023

Dread or dead lol

Ok so you don't get thunderous bass but damn the sound is unique and great

guitarjack66 · January 2023

bertie said:

guitarjack66 said:
The opposite. I'm saying that the attitude to playing smaller bodied acoustic seems to be snobbish and you 'have to have' a larger bodied instrument to get the sound or projection needed.

yeah, those were my first thoughts, not sure its a "snobbery" thing tho , just that some believe that tone from a smaller body is considerably "missing" certainly for long/heavy strumming sessions - some could argue the opposite of course, that "big" guitars are bass heavy when picking ! or just generally For me, its 90% a comfort thing, and the perceived loss of low end, i snt a problem for my ears and with my playing style Thats not to say, the feel of picking up a big super jumbo and hitting out some big major chords isnt "pleasurable" - just I wouldnt want or need one as my normal guitar ( s)

I'd have thought modern amplifier technology could solve most sound problems nowadays?

bertie · January 2023

guitarjack66 said:

I'd have thought modern amplifier technology could solve most sound problems nowadays?

not if you only play acoustically

guitarjack66 · January 2023

bertie said:

guitarjack66 said:

I'd have thought modern amplifier technology could solve most sound problems nowadays?

not if you only play acoustically

Is a non amplified sound good enough to fill a hall or large room?

bertie · January 2023

guitarjack66 said:

Is a non amplified sound good enough to fill a hall or large room?

probably not, but I was talking purely about the guitar itself, pretty sure I didnt mention any room size, and even then an amplified parlor aint going to sound like an amplified SJ or even dread

guitarjack66 · January 2023

bertie said:

guitarjack66 said:

Is a non amplified sound good enough to fill a hall or large room?

probably not, but I was talking purely about the guitar itself, pretty sure I didnt mention any room size, and even then an amplified parlor aint going to sound like an amplified SJ or even dread

I wondered why recreational players would care about loudness if they're only playing at home. Hence why I asked about amplification and large rooms,eg audiences and gigs.

bertie · January 2023

guitarjack66 said:
I wondered why recreational players would care about loudness if they're only playing at home. Hence why I asked about amplification and large rooms,eg audiences and gigs.

always used to (and largely still does) fall into two categories,

1 Mic'd
2. on-boards

for pure replication of natural acoustic quality nothing can compete with #1 and it TBH was the choice when onboards were so bad (think piezo under the saddle over compressed Takemine awfulness of the 80s/90s), especially for "instrumental" based artists and some continue to use mics for that reason = however still very prone to feedback at higher volume and of course needs the artist to remain "in one place"

On-boards and preamps are much better and cheaper these days as can be seen everywhere, better but nowhere near as good as #1, but the better choice in a band and/or when the acoustic is really just back up to the vocal or band

guitarjack66 · January 2023

bertie said:

guitarjack66 said:
I wondered why recreational players would care about loudness if they're only playing at home. Hence why I asked about amplification and large rooms,eg audiences and gigs.

always used to (and largely still does) fall into two categories,

1 Mic'd
2. on-boards

for pure replication of natural acoustic quality nothing can compete with #1 and it TBH was the choice when onboards were so bad (think piezo under the saddle over compressed Takemine awfulness of the 80s/90s), especially for "instrumental" based artists and some continue to use mics for that reason = however still very prone to feedback at higher volume and of course needs the artist to remain "in one place"

On-boards and preamps are much better and cheaper these days as can be seen everywhere, better but nowhere near as good as #1, but the better choice in a band and/or when the acoustic is really just back up to the vocal or band

i still see many guitars gigged and demo'ed with mics so I guess it's still a very popular choice.

Mellish · January 2023

I tried a Martin OM-28 today and was totally surprised to find it had just as much volume as my Gibson Dove dread.

I'm seriously considering going back to the store and getting it.

thomasross20 · January 2023

Wonder if anybody has any input here - when I play the low E only I hear this metallic ring/resonance. Seems to be coming from bridge end and if I put pressure on the string from behind the nut, it sort of goes away. Strings were fitted new from shop - gauge 12 on a parlour (been thinking of going to 12-56 instead of 12-53 but shouldn't affect things). Anybody experienced similar?

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NGD - Larrivee P-03

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