Types of guitars for types of styles

Hullo! This is my first post, but definitely not the last, in this forum.
So I really love the sound of Larrivee guitars, as my suite-mate has one.
However, as I was browsing ebay and the intornetz I started noticing that a lot of people prefer Larrivee guitars for finger-styling. I don't consider myself a finger-stylist, but I like to pick now and again.

Long story short, what body sizes are a for what styles, and what guitar will fit my desire to become the next John Mayer (jk LOL). But I do love his style of music if that's an indication of what I want to play.

Halp?

Also, I'm on the lookout for an "affordable" Larrivee possibly.
I have a Breedlove c250/cm (my first and only guitar so far) and I love it, but I feel that it's time to move up the line.

Any suggestions?
Like I said, my suite-mate has a D-03 and it sounds beautiful, but I want to get an idea of what's out there.

[JohnnyDes]

Welcome to the forum!

I use my Larrivee OM-09 for both strumming and fingerstyle/picking, although for strumming it's hard to beat a dreadnought. Although I haven't spent much time playing them, I've heard many argue that the Larrivee L body is the most versatile.

But then again John Mayer plays OMs mostly and now is working with his new even smaller 00 Martin Custom. John actually uses a lot of fingerpicking mixed with strumming (with his fingers) in his playing.

To answer your question more directly, there is a general sense that smaller guitars make better fingerpickers (more responsive) and larger guitars make better strummers (more expansive), but exceptions to that abound. In general, for what I want to hear from my playing, I tend to agree with the general sense, although the largest guitar I play is an OM because of shoulder pain I get when playing a dread.

Hope this helps,

John

what exactly is the larrivee L shape?
is it bigger than the OM?

[guitararmy]

Welcome to the AGF. I'm a big Larrivee fan, and an amateur guitar player at best. I play mostly fingerstyle, but like to use a dreadnought or jumbo for the volume and bass. I've never played an L-series Larry but I hear good things about them.
Another favorite fingerstyle guitar for me is Taylor's GS series (mine is Rosewood/Cedar).

[jseth]

You know, I've never been in a position to have different guitars for different styles of music; I've always played EVERYTHING on whatever acoustic I have owned, at the time...

I'm not a big fan of dreadnoughts, as I played them for the first couple decades that I played the guitar. Once I switched to a more curve-y, auditorium shape, I really feel it fits more styles that I love to play... and it can cover "straight strumming", should the need arise.

For 33 years I have played my Mark Angus #35, which is very close to what most builders would call their Concert Jumbo. I play with a flat pick, but use my other 3 fingers on the picking hand to get clusters of notes, or to finger pick. I just bought a new Goodall Grand Concert, which is a slightly smaller body than my Angus; it is a real gem, and it sounds great for finger picking, but really strong for flat picking and strumming, as well!

The bottom line is, I am sure that the Larrivee will sound great for whatever you want to play on it; I assume you have played your house mate's guitar... does it sound and feel good for strumming and picking? In general, the bigger bodied guitars are going to be louder than a smaller body... but the guitar itself will determine a lot.

Oh, a Grand Concert and an OM are essentially the same size, by the way...

and Welcome to the AGF! See you around....

play on..........................................>

John

hm, i guess i'm more of a bigger-body person.
i dont think i like the sound of smaller bodied guitars too much; they just sound very "high" and clangy. i do appreciate their clarity though.

so am i right to think that OM is something in-between of an L and a D series larrivee?
(sorry, im really narrowing my options on larrivee so far, but if you have suggestions i'd be more than happy to hear them!)
the OM-03R sounds more refined compared to the D-03. anyone have any experience with them?