Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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PorkyPrimeCut
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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Dec 06, 2022 1:06 am

Is it an M20? That top looks incredible but I can't tell if it's mahogany.

It looks to be the same size as my M-120 (not vintage) and, if so, I can vouch for it being one of the comfiest, easiest & most fun acoustics guitars out there. That's not even factoring in what a 60 year old body will sound like by now.

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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by garyptaszek » Tue Dec 06, 2022 1:11 am

I've wanted a Larrivée ever since I worked in a guitar shop with a wise Canadian fellow.
I managed to get a pretty good deal on this L-02 earlier this year and I'm pretty pleased about it.
The previous owner bought it new and barely played it due to a wrist injury that made it difficult to play. Leaving it in storage for so long didn't help matters as the relief was pretty stiff by the time I got to it. I crept it back and it's playable now.
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(no Johnny, no stickers yet)

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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by JSett » Tue Dec 06, 2022 1:40 am

PorkyPrimeCut wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 1:06 am
Is it an M20? That top looks incredible but I can't tell if it's mahogany.

It looks to be the same size as my M-120 (not vintage) and, if so, I can vouch for it being one of the comfiest, easiest & most fun acoustics guitars out there. That's not even factoring in what a 60 year old body will sound like by now.

The voice* of your conscience: "Dooo eeeeeet!!"
It's an F-20 so solid spruce top. The colour it has gone is what initially attracted me to this particular one
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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by garyptaszek » Tue Dec 06, 2022 2:53 am

I'd say buying an acoustic from overseas without playing it is a bit of a punt, especially a vintage one, you dunno what issues it might have that you can't see from just pictures. I'd say no (someones gotta be the bad guy).

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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by JSett » Tue Dec 06, 2022 3:52 am

garyptaszek wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 2:53 am
(someones gotta be the bad guy).
You always try and talk me out of these things :D
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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by garyptaszek » Tue Dec 06, 2022 4:12 am

johnnysomersett wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 3:52 am
garyptaszek wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 2:53 am
(someones gotta be the bad guy).
You always try and talk me out of these things :D
and I'm usually right to.

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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by JSett » Tue Dec 06, 2022 4:46 am

garyptaszek wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 4:12 am
and I'm usually right to.
Occasionally
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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Dec 06, 2022 6:35 am

Well, I just bought a vintage Guild, and did not do much research into it, and ended up sending it back. However I have some idea about how to buy an acoustic guitar I just basically didn't do any of it. Here's what I have learned over the years and what I should have done.

1) The frets were the issue on this one. This was the last stop before a refret and since the action wasn't there anyway, it was an immediate need. I didn't want to do it. Hard to evaluate frets from pictures, but see if you can get some pictures of the wear, etc.

2) The neck/bridge relationship. All glued in acoustic guitars will need a neck reset, so first, find out if this one has ever had one. Regardless of what you find out, the neck of an acoustic guitar is supposed to form a single plane with the top of the bridge (not the saddle). You can see this by just laying a straight edge (ruler, etc) along the length of the fretboard and over to the bridge. Ideally, the straight edge will be perfectly laying on top of the bridge or a little below or above the top of it. Any of that is within normal parameters, but anything else means the neck is either pulling up (normal) or misaligned in some other way (less normal).

Here is some visuals about it.

Ask to see this relationship.

3) Which brings us to the saddle. So assuming that the straight edge is in a pretty good relationship to the bridge, you still want to see a good amount of saddle. Basically the saddle gets sanded down over the years until such time as there is no more to go, and that's time for your neck reset. The more saddle the more time you have. However...

4) Some fucking people sand the bridge down in order to get around this. Don't buy that guitar.

5) You probably can't do much about this by pictures, but the top has a radius, also. You can lay a straight edge on that and you should see just a little bit of rocking there. If the straight edge lays flat on the top of the guitar, or you can see light between the bottom of the straight edge and the top, that means the top is concave when it should be convex, and is collapsing.

Don't buy that guitar either.

Now, you might be comfortable with a neck reset or a re-fret. But the top collapsing is a real problem.

6) The rest is common sense... are the braces still tight inside the guitar? Does the truss rod work? Is the bridge lifting from the top of the guitar? Is the neck twisted? Is everything, you know, fucking glued together still?

Hope any of this helps and that it's not too patronizing if you know it all already.
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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by garyptaszek » Tue Dec 06, 2022 7:41 am

So, basically Larry is saying I'm right :whistle:

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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Dec 06, 2022 8:02 am

garyptaszek wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 7:41 am
So, basically Larry is saying I'm right :whistle:
I'll let y'all figure out right and wrong on this one, I'm basically just in the straight edge recommending business.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by JSett » Tue Dec 06, 2022 8:50 am

I have asked various questions so far, obviously. What I can tell you (and have seen from pictures) is that

a) a neck reset has not been done as was deemed not required in a recent overhaul
b) action is good - 2.4mm / 3/32" at the 12th fret (confirmed with picture)
c) frets have plenty of life in them (seen in closer pictures)

I have just sent a message about the bridge/neck relationship as per Larry's advice.

Quoted from the seller:
has had some restoration work done by a professional luthier and there are decades of magic left to be enjoyed by someone. The spruce top has NO CRACKS. The mohagany back, sides and neck show no signs of repair work done, aside from 3-4 very small cracks that started to form in the back, but have been filled with glue to prevent them from getting any worse... no big deal for a 60 year old instrument! Any exposed wood grain has been filled. I opted not to do any further refinish work, since the original nitro is still holding up and I'd never want to compromise the amazing sounds that this thing produces.

The saddle and bridge pins have been replaced with Martin bone materials. Other than that, she's original. The tuners work wonderfully and look terrific. Many of the examples you'll see of guitars from this era have been refinished, have had major structural repairs and had hardware replaced.

The frets have some wear as you would expect from an instrument this old... my luthier recrowned them and was able to get a good setup on it... no dead or buzzy notes.
Action:
Image

Other pictures:
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Image
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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by marqueemoon » Tue Dec 06, 2022 9:16 am

The action seems slightly on the high side and with the amount of saddle left it seems they are just leaving the neck reset decision to the next buyer.

Plus referring to the guitar as “she” :-X

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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by JSett » Tue Dec 06, 2022 9:51 am

marqueemoon wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 9:16 am
The action seems slightly on the high side and with the amount of saddle left it seems they are just leaving the neck reset decision to the next buyer.

Plus referring to the guitar as “she” :-X
Yeah, gendering a guitar is more than gross but unfortunately prevalent in the guitar world.
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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by JSett » Tue Dec 06, 2022 9:55 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 6:35 am

3) Which brings us to the saddle. So assuming that the straight edge is in a pretty good relationship to the bridge, you still want to see a good amount of saddle. Basically the saddle gets sanded down over the years until such time as there is no more to go, and that's time for your neck reset. The more saddle the more time you have. However...

4) Some fucking people sand the bridge down in order to get around this. Don't buy that guitar.
I asked, he replied:
The top of the bridge was planed down the make room to lower the saddle and still get a good break angle. Was done from the top as to not weaken the wings so it can still hold up to the tension.
Guess I'm out then.
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Re: Anyone else infatuated with their Acoustic?

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Dec 06, 2022 10:11 am

johnnysomersett wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 9:55 am

The top of the bridge was planed down the make room to lower the saddle and still get a good break angle. Was done from the top as to not weaken the wings so it can still hold up to the tension.
Guess I'm out then.
I wouldn't.

So, the bridge was sanded ("shaved") in order to get the action right because the neck is pulling up. But the neck isn't done pulling up, and some day it will need to be reset. That's just the deal with steel string acoustics.

However, now you have a situation in which the bridge also needs to be replaced should the neck be reset. It was a borrowing from Peter to pay Paul situation.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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