L'arrivee D-lite

[sihackett29]

Has anyone heard of these? One has come up locally and I'm very tempted. Never heard of this model? It's from the late 90s...

[Wade Hampton]

It was essentially the predecessor to the Larrivée parlor - it's a scaled down dreadnought, either a 3/4 or 7/8 size instrument.

They're okay, but they're not particularly exciting, either. They're definitely outclassed by the Larrivée parlor guitars in just about every category, and once Larrivée came out with the parlors there was literally no reason for the company to continue building the D-Lites.

So to answer your question, yes, I've played several of this now rather obscure Larrivée model, and my experience playing the three or four that I've had my hands on is that they're justifiably obscure. What with the individualistic nature of solid wood musical instruments, I'm sure there are some out there that are nice-sounding guitars, but none that I had a chance to play were anything to write home about.

So, short version: go play this one that's for sale to determine whether you like it, but don't be heartbroken if somebody else buys it first.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Tuffythepug]

As Wade indicated, they were not Larrivee's finest effort. I've never played one... I'm a lefty so I've never seen one I could play. These D-lites just never caught on.... for good reason.

[Dru Edwards]

I just researched this on the Larrivee Forum. Wade is correct. It's a short scale, 7/8 size guitar. Apparently, The "lite" series had both OM and an L.

Are you going to try it out? You never know, it may be a gem.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

I just researched this on the Larrivee Forum. Wade is correct. It's a short scale, 7/8 size guitar. Apparently, The "lite" series had both OM and an L.

Interesting - this is the first I've heard of an OM-Lite. I've definitely never seen one, so they must be truly rare birds.

I did see a few D-Lites in Vancouver, BC music stores, as well as one that they used to keep around at the Hastings Street Larrivée factory. None were particularly enticing instruments, frankly.

Matt Larrivée was also somewhat unenthused about the D-Lite model the one time that model came up in conversation between us. He was fairly dismissive of it.

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Are you going to try it out? You never know, it may be a gem.

Maybe so. Even if I had my doubts ahead of time, I would still make an effort and drive across town to try one out. There's always a chance that that one might be THE one.


whm

[AZLiberty]

The "lites" were originally built for export to Asia. As above they were 7/8 scale. Somehow the original order fell through and they ended up being sold domestically instead.

[sneaky]

Funny...heard the same Asian story about the OM-01`s when they came out...that the people who ordered them cancelled at the last minute however, I bought mine over here in Japan.
I happen to own...and love...both the OM-Lite and the L-Lite...and same thing...I got both here in Japan so I`m not sure how those stories got started but something`s wrong with it since I bought mine over here.
Guess I`m going to have to go against the grain and say both my little Larri`s are really fun to play and I think they sound very nice as do the friends who`ve played em...but what do I know, I`m just a couch player who is self taught. If I wasn`t pleased with them I would have stopped at one or sold them off but thats not going to happen...and because I like them so much once when I was in Tokyo I played a few Larrivee parlors and preferred the Lites so didn`t buy one. Mine differ slightly from each other...one has white neck binding the other black, the tuners are different, been a while since I`ve had them out because I play more nylon string these days but if I remember, the body binding is different too...both are satin finished with mahogany back/sides. Guess you`ll have to try the D and see.
P.S....don`t have a D model so I`m going by the other two from the series that I do have.

[shakespearouac]

Magic still happens. I discovered the existence of this model by blind luck.
A small run of them were made in the late '90's. I bought mine for ½ to ⅓ price of a used Larrivee D-03.
My new treasure is a 1997 mahogany b&s, sitka top D-03, but ⅞ size. It's label calls the model "D-LITE." Larrivee, on its serial #, mfr information page, describes it as a DS-03
Its specs: 24 ½ scale, 1.7 nut, 14-fret,
depth 4 ½, lower bout 15, upper bout 11, waist 10 1/8.
I can find almost nothing about their existence online.
The wonderful tone is as balanced as an OM. I play fingerstyle jazz, classical (!) and blues. It's replaced my go-to Martin 000-28 as the ax i pick up, on the sofa and on the stage.
It'll be quite a quest, i think, for anybody to uncover one — my uninformed guess is that less than 20 or 30 were made, as a test-run for the model, then Larrivee decided there wasn't enought market interest. Fyi, mine is serial #1660