After checking in at the hotel in San Jose, I have some time before dinner, so I thought I'd share the photos I took at Larrivee's Oxnard factory this morning. Matthew graciously gave me permission to take pictures even before I asked.
Once again, the pics are taken with a cheap cell phone camera, so some pics were deemed useless upon inspection on my laptop, but here are 20 of them taken in order. Enjoy!
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1. This is an apparatus used to bend the sides into shape. I'm told that the wood is sprayed with water right before being pressed against it.
2. The bent sides inside the mold are being prepared before the top and the back are glued on.
3. Here is the world-famous "symmetrical bracing" for the top.
4. This is the bracing for the back.
5. It's a horrible pic, but it shows a neck before it goes into a CNC machine for pre-shaping. Here one of my earlier misconceptions was corrected; the Larrivee neck comes from a single uncut piece of Mahogany, with the headstock and the neck joint NEVER cut up from the main neck and rejoined later. The shaping of the neck is done with all parts intact from the start to finish. Part of me makes me think it's not the most efficient usage of wood, but then again, Larrivee is known not to make compromises on tone, and if Jean feel that this is the best way to make the neck who am I to argue?
6. The inlays on the headstock are all done by Wendy.
7. Here's the sanding of the body in action.