Larrivee OM-03BH

guitarjack66 · April 2023

Certainly beats those Thomann demos.

thomasross20 · April 2023

Thanks - any comments fire away! I'll have to check these Thomann demoes

I still am thinking about a Martin for the earthier tone OR a custom 12 fret cutaway Larrivee shorter scale length. I really am liking smaller guitars

Mellish · April 2023

@thomasross20 ; which Martin have you got in mind?

This OM-28 Re-imagined sounds so good. I've got it strung with D'Addario EJ16 12-53.

thomasross20 · April 2023

I tried an OOO18 Adirondack + sinker mahogany which sounded pretty good. I went in next day to AB Vs my Larrivee but somebody had bought it. Problem is it cost £££

Mellish · April 2023

Yes, I remember you saying. That's what can happen. It's happened to me. A guitar that would have left me potless snatched away by someone else when I went to the other end of the store to talk to the wall.

thomasross20 · April 2023

Actually couldn't believe it lol.
However at £5500 my £600 OM02 was comparable

I think Martin sounds great out of the box and Larrivee needs to mature

thomasross20 · April 2023

Mellish said:

Yes, I remember you saying. That's what can happen. It's happened to me. A guitar that would have left me potless snatched away by someone else when I went to the other end of the store to talk to the wall.

You should do a demo of your Martin!

Mellish · April 2023

I'm old school. Trying to teach me to post pics or demos... Well, I just don't get how you do that stuff. Maybe if I had the time.......

thomasross20 · April 2023

No worries

Tannin · April 2023

thomasross20 said:

Maton EG808 with the australian maple - sounded very good. Deeper than Larrive, more bass - not as brilliant a treble sound. But very good - great price. Felt a bit heavier than the Larry.

That would be the EBG808TE yes? The cheapest one Google shows me in the UK is £2249. Here they are £1510. OK, you are paying 20% tax instead of 10% and a hundred quid or so for freight - so the UK price ought to be under £1800. (And people talk about the Martin tax.,)

--------------------------------------

Thanks for the video! Very interesting. One of these days I'll do something similar with my little lot. (Don't hold your breath, when it comes to recording I really do have all the gear and absolutely no friggin' idea.)

The sweet little P-03 is too dry for me, and too middly with an over-sharp attack .... until you switch to fingerstyle, when it really comes alive. I like the body of the OM-02, it'd got some oomph (bigger body mostly, but that Sapele works). And the richness of the OM-03BH speaks for itself. It is rich but not cloying, sweet but not saccharine. On balance, tyhat'sd the one I'd have out of the three, though the OM-02 rings my bells too,.

It is really useful to have the three guitars laid out like that in the video. And the one thing that stands out sat the end of it is that, no matter which one you play, after 5 or 10 seconds, my ear grows accustomed to the sound and it works just fine. The moral of the story here is that any well-made guitar will sound just fine in the hands of someone who can play.

And the second conclusion to come to from my listening is that, yes. you are right, different guitars work better for different tunes. All three of them shine at one point or another.

Here in Ballarat (where I am for a month or so) I'm finding that I'm not playing as much as I do at home, and one of the reasons is that I have just the one guitar with me. At home I have several and choose the one that fits the mood of the moment. Result, I nearly always have a guitar which seems like a good thing to play at any particular time. Here with just the one guitar, I sometimes pick it up and it doesn't seem to be doing the business so I put it down. At home, I do that and simply pick up another one.

And one more lesson from that. Some guitars are more versatile than other guitars. I've come over here before with only one guitar. I found only having the Guild was very restrictive (it's a one trick pony). I find that only having the Huon Pine Angel is moderately restrictive - it's a great guitar but it does what it does. (And it doesn't do what it doesn't do.) On the other hand, I found that only having the Maton dread (cedar over Queensland Maple) was just fine. It's a great all-rounder, good for any style, more versatile than anything else I own. The WA May (spruce and Blackwood) is next best in that regard (but I don't travel with that guitar - too expensive!) and the Messiah (spruce and rosewood) is another one it's OK to have as an only guitar.

So which of your three would pass my "only one guitar" test? Either of the larger ones, but given the choice I'd take the OM-03BH.

Kilgore · April 2023

VimFuego said:

I think it's fair to say you are now the big boss of the larrivee fan club.

The Victor Kiam of Larrivee.

"I liked it so much, I bought the company."

thomasross20 · April 2023

Hahaha I will buy this company dammit!

@Tannin a very well thought out response, thank you!

P-03:
I LOVE it. 24" scale length is so easy to play.
12 fret (so bridge lower down) gives it oomph (growl) in the sound.
Folk say the OO is much better as for that little bit body size increase you get a bigger sound but... I WANT the parlour sound.
I thought 12 frets would be an issue but who actually goes higher? I don't very often so it's more comfortable due to reduced reach.I can't overstate just how comfortable this is to play, and how much it makes you want to pick up and play. I think this will open up in time (as is new) and I love that middy sound. When recording, it will really cut through (I have plans for some acoustic recordings).
Definitely suits fingerstyle best.

OM-02:
I took this into local shop to compare to other guitars and it did very well against them.
20 years old and has aged very well.
Sapele I think has more shimmer in trebles than mahogany but often I wonder about an OM-05 ("proper" mahogany)
--> Would be a waste as would be so similar I'd sell one (which I'm doing with my OM40, which I'll come onto).
I love the sound of mahogany though I understand re "dyness" (reverb in recording can help)
I do think mahogany has its own natural reverb and syrupy tone which I love.
Rosewood always seemed to lack a touch of character for me, made up for by its overtones. But I can appreciate it, too.

OM-03BH:
I can get the bass response of the OM40 with this without the scalloped bracing.
Thus I get to keep the brilliance in the mids/trebles that non-scalloped Larrivee's have.
It's the most mahogany-like rosewood I've tried and the moonwood top does make a difference to the sound (clearer and mellower in a good way).
It is a joy to play and suits more open string vista-type pieces lol...

OM40:
I have discovered I prefer non-scalloped guitars.
I know scalloping isn't the only way to get more bass (Goodall shaves the top, iirc, to get the same effect).
By definition, I don't want an unbalanced instrument. More bass thump = reduction in mid/treble brilliance.
Easy to EQ more bass in but hard to edit out extra bass. Balanced is the way for me, personally.
Non-scalloped also feel better to play, to me - a spongey feel, can drive them harder, too.
And non-scalloped is a stronger top so less likely to belly.
BUT I can also appreciate the sound if I shift to a more bass/mids-based listening approach.
I am going to move this as is similar to the OM-02 and I prefer the OM-02.

I like the sound of Blackwood, btw. The TE guitar (I believe scalloped!) has nice bass response and almost the same treble brilliance as my OM-02. I think blackwood has more character than rosewood.

Agree that the ear adjusts to what it's hearing... I could play the parlour for hours and think it's the best sounding guitar ever. Then I pick up the OM-03BH and the cavernous sound is like "wow..."

So......... today I spied a very rare Larrivee O-01 with cedar top and walnut back and sides (used). 2002 model before they ramped the prices on the parlours. I pulled the trigger. I keep hearing this combo is special and it's a rarity for Larrivee so I've gone for it. I think I found an old listing for the same guitar and the binding is very slightly pulling away in two places but if all it needs is to be glued back on then that should be fine.

One ultimate all-rounder would be great but never going to happen

Thanks for the comments!

Tannin · April 2023

Good stuff - very interesting reading. The TE Matons (EBG808TE or EBG808TEC if it has a cutaway) is Queensland Maple, not Blackwood. Different sound. (I love both.) (There is a third TE Maton, the TE Personal, which is hand-made in the custom shop and three times the price. These glorious things are the ones Tommy actually plays. I have my eye on one ... but not this year, alas.)

Matons generally (and indeed most Australian guitars) are more heavily braced than American guitars. They tend to be very tough and durable, and to have a different sort of sound, well-balanced and happy to be played pretty hard. I love them (but of course I grew up on them).

I'm not convinced that scalloped vs non-scalloped is the key here, I think it's more about the overall weight and stiffness of the combined top and bracing. However there are certain models from particular makers where the scalloped / non-scalloped distinction provides a convenient hook to hang the differences on, if you know what I mean.

Cedar and walnut .... very hard to go past that pairing. A great find!

Maybe I'll go that way with my Brook when the time comes, but for that we will have to wait and see.

PS: I pointed my brother at a used Larrivee a few months ago and he duly bought it. A spruce and rosewood dreadnought if I remember correctly. (He likes rosewood.) He lives at the other end of the state so I haven't been over there to try it out yet.

thomasross20 · April 2023

Ah has he given a review?

Yes the TE guitars... They are really good. Top marks.

Have you seen the "boutique guitar store" YouTube videos? Same guy playing exact same lick for years on different boutique guitars. It's brilliant. So I was listening last night and there is definitely something about a cedar top that sounds fantastic, particularly over hard back and sides wood. Lowden obviously do this well - excited now!

tomjax · April 2023

thomasross20 said:...
there is definitely something about a cedar top that sounds fantastic, particularly over hard back and sides wood. Lowden obviously do this well - excited now!

My tastes were firmly in the spruce/rosewood camp (even my J45 has a rosewood body) until a cedar/rosewood Kronbauer guitar came into my collection.

It has a beautiful, rounded and resonant tone, it's now my go to guitar, especially when I have it tuned to DADGAD. I agree, cedar over a hardwood can be a really special combination.

I'd love to find a cedar/ebony, and thinking of a custom build in those woods.

Tannin · April 2023

tomjax said:

I'd love to find a cedar/ebony, and thinking of a custom build in those woods.

The softest available top, and the hardest available back! An interesting notion.

Well, almost the hardest. Rather than quote raw figures, I find it useful to think in terms of relative hardness compared to something common and familiar. In those terms, ebony is 3.52 times as hard as Honduran Mahogany. On the reasonably well-known tonewoods, only African Blackwood is harder at 4.04 times the hardness of mahogany. And of course, Western Red Cedar is the softest commonly used topwood at 0.39 relative to mahogany at 1.0. For comparison, Englemann Spruce and European Spruce come next (both around 0.42), Sitka Spruce is 0.5.

My much-loved cedar-top guitar is on Queensland Maple (1.02 times as hard as mahogany). I reckon it would be a very different beast on African Blackwood or ebony!

Tannin · April 2023

@thomasross20 that's an amazing channel! It's a shame that he seldom plays any guitar that isn't American (there are so many great makers in so many other places!) but fair enough, he lives there, and it's not as if there is any shortage of fine instruments coming out of that continent.

A brilliant simple idea and a channel I could (and doubtless will) waste hours on. The site software screws up when you try to link to a You-tube channel rather than a particular video, but let's try our luck

http://www.youtube.com/@boutiqueguitarshop4664

thomasross20 · April 2023

Yeah it's the perfect comparison channel - same short 10 second lick on different guitars, no variation. That's the one, love it

tomjax · April 2023

@Tannin cedar/african Blackwood sounds perfect too! Especially if the tone of this Charis at the boutique guitar channel is anything to go by:

https://youtu.be/NL3cOqSdmu4

Great channel by the way @thomasross20 thanks.

thomasross20 · April 2023

Cheera guys.
Btw I'm returning the cedar/walnut - did indeed sound good but trebles were a touch piercing for my ears - might have been the particular guitar. The Australian tonewoods are great

Soupman · April 2023

Good channel @thomasross20 . Not seen it before but a great concept.
@Tannin one of the first vids up was a Lowden S-50c among American guitars! I love the Lowden sound.

Mellish · April 2023

That's a channel I could watch/listen to all day @thomasross20. All those Martins!

Thanks for posting.

earwighoney · April 2023

tomjax said:

thomasross20 said:...
there is definitely something about a cedar top that sounds fantastic, particularly over hard back and sides wood. Lowden obviously do this well - excited now!

My tastes were firmly in the spruce/rosewood camp (even my J45 has a rosewood body) until a cedar/rosewood Kronbauer guitar came into my collection.

It has a beautiful, rounded and resonant tone, it's now my go to guitar, especially when I have it tuned to DADGAD. I agree, cedar over a hardwood can be a really special combination.

I'd love to find a cedar/ebony, and thinking of a custom build in those woods.

Try to keep an eye out for the Richard Thompson Lowden, which is cedar over ziricote. The latter seems to perform a bit like an ebony.

I have played a few ziricote guitars and they have been very heavy but excellent instruments.

bertie · April 2023

earwighoney said:

I have played a few ziricote guitars and they have been very heavy but excellent instruments.

the neck / fretboard on my custom Morgan (leccy) is ziricote, and I can concur

thomasross20 · April 2023

I like the channel's simplicity, short consistent videos without much chat. The perfect guitar comparison type video. Don't forget the Larrivee's lol..

Ziricote - have never tried it!

earwighoney · April 2023

thomasross20 said:

I like the channel's simplicity, short consistent videos without much chat. The perfect guitar comparison type video. Don't forget the Larrivee's lol..

Ziricote - have never tried it!

It produces a lovely sound but for acoustics as it is so heavy it needs to thinned quite a lot and can be prone to cracking.

Saying that I played a Sitka/Ziricote Beneteau OM which was one of the finest sounding guitars I have ever played.

thomasross20 · April 2023

One day lol...
Actually might be down London way within next few months - Coda en route. Could be dangerous!

earwighoney · April 2023

thomasross20 said:

One day lol...
Actually might be down London way within next few months - Coda en route. Could be dangerous!

Make a trip to Maks Guitars if you are in London. I've not been there but it's run by the old manager of Ivor Mairants in the same shop. They seem to have decent stock, and Mak is a great guy.

It's a shame TAMCO is no longer around. They had the most incredible selection of acoustic guitars. I made one trip there and played a lot of different guitars in a multitude of different woods and dimensions.

bertie · April 2023

thomasross20 said:

One day lol...
Actually might be down London way within next few months - Coda en route. Could be dangerous!

go via Bristol and buy a Brook

thomasross20 · April 2023

I fear I would do exactly that.....

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