Section 1: Where Does It All Begin?
Section 2: From Tail Wedge to Binding
Section 3: From Side Sanding Through Neck Fit
Section 4: Neck Carving through Neck and Body Sanding
Section 5: The Finishing Department
Section 6: Bull Buffing to Fretting
Section 7: Bridge Gluing to Shipping

FROM SIDE SANDING THROUGH NECK FIT

With the body now being bound, we are just about ready to fit the neck to the body. However first we must side sand the guitar, and subsequently stroke sand the top and back. We start this process by grinding the sides with 60 grit, and then 100 grit sand paper. This removes the excess binding wood, and any surface level oxidization from the sides and brings the true color of the wood out. Once we side sand the guitar, the race is on to get it into paint to cover the un-oxidized surface with finish - thus maintaining the true natural wood color. From the time the sides are sanded, we try to have the guitar in paint within 3 days.

Matthew Larrivee "Grinds" an L-09 Koa Limited Edition, while Sergio sands mandolins in the background.

With the sides sanded, we now glue in the final part of the rosette; If the guitar is a -50 or -60 series we inlay a herringbone strip, If the guitar is an -05, -09, -10, or -11 we glue in strips of Paua Abalone. The rosettes are cut on our CNC machine with a 0.032" Router bit (VERY small) at 40,000 RPM.

The CNC Machine Cutting Rosettes.

We next remove the cut strips from the sheet by quickly submersing them in hot water. Once dry, they are inlaid into the soundboard. This process can be painstakingly slow, and requires skill to make sure there are no gaps.

Robert inlays abalone strips around the perimeter of an OMV-10

Now that the rosette and abalone purlfings have been glued in, we can now sand the soundboard and back. Most guitar makers sand the soundboard by using orbital sanders, or large flat sanders which work for the most part, but the problem is that because of the small surface area of these sanders, and the fact that they are operated by freehand, they can easily create dips and valleys in the soft-wood soundboard. This can severely and quickly alter the thickness and sound characteristics of the soundboard. We use a method called stroke sanding. A Stroke sander is a large belt sander with a 22 foot long, 6" wide belt. This allows us to do the coarse-sanding on the soundboard in a matter of 10-15 seconds, and also allows us to keep the soundboard totally flat because of its very large surface area. We only do the very last sanding on the soundboard with an random orbital sander. Below you can see how the stroke sander works.

Robert Sands the Back of an L-09K Special Edition.

We are now ready to begin the process of fitting a neck to the body. The necks for the -05's to the -11's are made at the Canadian factory and shipped to us here in California. The necks for the -50's and -60's are made here in Oxnard. The traditional style necks with a volute have (in the past) been very time consuming and expensive to create, but through the use of CNC technology we have been able to dramatically reduce the time and cost of creating this headstock. The allows us to dramatically reduce the cost to the player.

Cutting the slots on a OOO-60 Necks using the CNC machine

Virtually all Larrivee guitars in existence use a dovetail neck joint (The only exception being a small handful of experimental bolt on Larrivee's in the early 1980's, and of course the Electric Guitars also made in the 80's). The process of creating a dovetail neck joint is two parts: creating a cavity, and creating a insert. Every neck is custom fit for each body. The dovetail jigs that we used are made on our CNC machine. It is important to note that the dovetail is a hand fit & build part of the guitar, but the tooling we use is Machined by CNC for precision.

The guitar body is loaded into a foam-lined vertical clamp controlled by a quick release air cylinder (For quick loading and unloading). We then use a large flat phenolic sanding block to sand the area where the dovetail will go (This ensures it is flat). We then place a special CNC made JIG on top of the guitar and commence routing the dovetail cavity.  The body is routing with a rough cut straight router bit, and then the final cut with the dovetail bit.

Routing the body of a guitar

The dovetail size that we use is not one that you can go out and purchase a template for at your local Home Depot. The dovetail size perfectly follows the profile of the heel, making more wood from the neck actually connect and sit in the guitar body (more than any other neck joint other than a Spanish heel). Some people will argue against the dovetail neck joint saying "Every guitar will someday need a neck reset, and dovetails are the hardest to remove/reset/reseat" That statement is wrong, every guitar will NOT require a reset. A guitar with a properly fit dovetail neck joint, an adjustable truss rod, and that is kept properly hydrated will likely never require a reset. In the 40 years since this article was written, we have done less than two dozen warranty neck resets - and guess what? The neck resets were mostly on newly finished guitars are were not fit right to begin with (Out of 100,000 guitars - 20 guitars needing some warranty neck work is perfectly reasonable in our opinion).

With that statement out of the way, we can continue on with the dovetail on the neck - With the body routed out, we then use a special sander and jigs to create the correct tilt and angle for the neck. This is done painstakingly by hand. We have a laser cut jig to check neck angle on the fly (without a bridge) and another transparent jig to line the center of the neck up with the center line on the soundboard. Basically the process of fitting the neck is measure-adjust-measure-adjust-etc. We check the angle and if it is not right we adjust the sander accordingly, sand a little more off the bottom of the neck, then measure again - etc.

Setting the angle and tilt of the neck

Once we have the neck sanded to the correct angle, tilt, and length it is time to route the dovetail onto the neck. The neck is placed into a CNC made JIG, and held in place with an air cylinder. The router then follows a precision cut guide and routes the dovetail.

Routing the neck to perfectly fit the body

The neck and body are both serial numbered, and the last stages of neck fitting are completed. This involves routing the body for the truss rod, adding a small amount of hollow to the neck, and marking the heel cap. At this point, the fit of the neck to the body is so tight - it can only be removed with a hammer (Even though there is no glue, or bolts). If you ever take an in-person tour of the factory, ask to see this - It is quite amazing!

Closeup of the dovetail

The fingerboard is then glued into place using indirect clamping to prevent twisting of the fretboard.

Robert gluing the fingerboard on to a neck

next >>
<< previous

Section 1: Where Does It All Begin?
Section 2: From Tail Wedge to Binding
Section 3: From Side Sanding Through Neck Fit
Section 4: Neck Carving through Neck and Body Sanding
Section 5: The Finishing Department
Section 6: Bull Buffing to Fretting
Section 7: Bridge Gluing to Shipping