Now I’d like to complete the final part of a post I did a while ago about a guided video tour of the Larrivee plant. If your a serious or casual guitarist, you might find some neat answers to questions about how they make acoustic guitars. Enjoy!
In video 4 @ 01:13, they talk about all the parts of the neck of a guitar. The way they carve the neck is a craftsmanship at it’s best. I was amazed at how many parts of it that has names attached to them. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks or words! The prep work before painting is neat as well as the technique itself. The finishing part that Larrivee uses in this section is called a UV finish. They use to use a lacquer finish now but took around 2 weeks to dry properly. The new stuff cures in a minute and a half in comparison to 2 weeks for the older finish. I wonder if the new finish they apply affects the guitar’s tone, even a little bit? If you know this answer, I’d love to here from you.
In video 5, they show a technician using wood shims while installing the neck of the guitar to the body. I just thought it would size up perfectly but for a supper snug fit, I can see how shims come in handy @ 01:52. The way the neck is glued onto the body has to be a bit stressful for the technician. This is brought to us @ 03:28. It has to be perfect or otherwise and little problems at this part of the process will be magnified at the end. If the friction fit dove tail section is not match perfect, I think that there you got some explaining to do! Near the end of this last video, at the final polishing/buffing stage, I was hoping that the guy was going to show us what might happen if he launches a guitar when using the buffing wheel. That would be priceless! At my second jewelry job, I did that launching thing once while polishing a necklace for a boss of mine and I mangled the hell out of it. it can honestly be quite dangerous.
Here are the remaining links to complete the Larrivee Plant Tour.
To finish off the tour I thought that I’d add video of the man himself Jean Larrivee the genius behind the Larrivee.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3P6HcKVTrY&NR=1
Keep on Jammin’
