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The other day my older son (who is 10 years old, has autism and is mentally/emotionally challenged) had a moderate temper tantrum and I tried lightening the mood by playing some fingerstyle on my Larrivee OM-03R. He wasn't having it and he calmed down enough to ask me to stop. I obliged and leaned the guitar on a chair and walked away. He walked away as well and sat on the couch for several minutes. All was quiet for a bit.

Then he quietly got up, walked over to the guitar, picked it up and threw it like javelin butt end first. It impacted the oak post at the foot of the steps and landed flat on its back.

I was sitting on the steps at the time and was in shock. This however is typical behavior for him - though it's decreased - but I allowed myself to be lulled into a false sense of security and paid a high price for it.







I have to admit that I was sick about this. I looked at it long enough to see that the only apparent damage was to the side and took off the strings to feel if any braces had cracked or popped loose. I couldn't get my arm far enough inside to feel the side though so I don't think I can repair it. FWIW the cracks look mostly clean along grain lines apart from the poly satin finish checking badly and the area between the cracks being indented but otherwise undamaged.

Any suggestions? For those of you who do repairs professionally what's the ball park price for this kind of repair barring any other less apparent damage that I may have missed?

Hello.
I am sorry to hear and see what happened to your guitar and I can only imagine how trying at times it is to raise a child with the challenges your son has... But I am sure he brings great joy into your life as all children do. As far as the damage to your guitar, there are several very talented people here on this forum (as you may or may not know) and I believe they will be able to easily talk and guide you through what you need to do to bring your guitar back to its full beauty and playing ability it had before the mishap. Good luck!

Sincerely,
Rich

The first step is to find a GOOD luthier. You might ask Larrivee if they have a list of "approved" luthiers. I'm pretty sure Martin does, and you could get their list as well. Also ask at good music stores for a recommendation. Hopefully, the various sources of names will tend to focus on one or two in your area. Then go see them and listen to what they have to say. Then choose the one that makes you most comfortable.

The damage looks quite repairable to me, but you'll want a person who knows what they are doing.

PM me I can send you my contact info.
This is indeed repairable

From a fellow OM3 owner; I'm hoping it all works out for you.

Thanks, guys. I have to clear the cost of repair with the wife first and I have yet to tell her what happened. She is the head of household but does not share my enthusiasm for guitars. Still, this is my primary gigging instrument for when I play in church so it's either repair it or purchase another pickup for one of my other two acoustic guitars.

As for my son, I'm just glad that that tantrum ended as quickly as it started.

Yeah. Contact John Hall (or the local luthier of your choice), hug your son, and do whatever is required by your wife to enable repair of that fine guitar. My primary instrument is a Larrivee, and I've loved it for many years. Best of luck.

cracks , while devastating are often not that horrible to fix . Clean cracks are about $10 an inch

Thanks, John. I'm perusing your recent video on patching sides. As you can see in the picture, there are two cracks that run 8"-10" with a couple of cross-grain cracks in between, making an indented area about 1.5" x 3". My biggest concern is with the flaked poly finish. Sanding it off shouldn't be a problem. Refinishing the area to match would be and last I checked it would void my warranty - though clearly this type of damage isn't covered anyway.

I s'pose I could just duck tape it. Duck tape fixes everything. ;-)

here is where super glue can come in handy