LARRIVÉE 0-44R, 000-44R & OMV-44R £2,649, £2,899 & £3,229
Larrivée’s acoustic guitars have charmed us often in the past. With build quality that’s typically very sharp, Jean Larrivée’s team of builders – based now in Oxnard, California, and originally hailing from Canada – deliver the business time after time. So we were excited to hear that there was another batch heading our way from across the Atlantic.
These latest guitars belong to the 44 Legacy Series, which itself is based on the models from the 40 Legacy Series – the difference being that the 44s offer a high-gloss finish as opposed to the 40s’ satin. Whether this was a request from the established acoustic-guitar fraternity (who like their instruments to look like mama used to make…) or not remains unclear. Let’s just take things at face value here. It’s also worth noting that the 44 models have to be specially ordered via a Larrivée dealer, as opposed to the more off-the-peg nature of the 40 range.
If you’re wondering what the Legacy Series comprises, the answer is really in the title. All the guitars therein are based on traditional body sizes from days of yore. So you have the baby of the group, the 0 model, right up to a dreadnought, passing through the 00, 000, OM with a few variations chucked in for good measure.
Construction is tried-and-true traditional, too, with no real surprises in terms of body woods along the way. Both the staple mahogany or rosewood back and sides options are catered for in the 40 Series, but here our 44s are rosewood only. As far as body dimensions are concerned, we had our pick and decided to pluck out an 0, an OMV (essentially an OM with a cutaway) and a 000 in order to cover as much of the acoustic well-trodden path as possible.
Construction is triedand-true traditional, with no surprises in terms of body woods along the way
As you can see from the prices listed above, we’re not talking impulse purchase budget or mid-price ranges here; we’re considering guitars that will be a target for the semi-pro to pro market. Obviously, the desire is for a top-class, well-constructed package that will stand everything from occasional gigging to full-on touring. We’ve heard from luthiers in the past that building an instrument that’s both strong
enough to cope with the rigours of the road and yet be sweet-sounding with a full set of frequencies is a difficult nut to crack. So let’s dig in and see how Larrivée has fared in this respect.
Before we begin, though, we’ll cover a question that you might be asking yourself. If these guitars are intended for the pro market, how come they’re not fitted with pickups? The answer is that, seeing as the 44s are by-order only, if you want a pickup installed then Larrivée offers a range of LR Baggs options, with a price hike of between £199 to £269, depending on which model of pickup is appropriate. Sounds like a sensible idea to us. After all, there’s nothing worse than finding a guitar that ticks all the boxes for you but then has a pickup installed that doesn’t float your boat. It’s a choice that bespoke builders offer their clients and so it’s not at all out of place here.
On to the guitars themselves, then, and despite the fact we have three different models of varying dimensions, the actual menu of woods and accessories remains pretty much consistent. A side note of this, of course, is it’s interesting to see exactly what sort of differences there are in terms of performance from the different body sizes. But more of that later. First, let’s run down the basic build details.