Singer-songwriter Ian Fisher told us about his love for his Larrivee BT-03.
Ian Fisher: I can’t do without my Larrivee BT-03. I spent years touring around by train and plane in Europe with the smallest (yet best sounding) guitar I could find; a Larrivee P-03. I love that little thing, but it’s limited. It’s a workhorse that fits in an overhead compartment, but the spectrum of sound that comes out can air more on the toy telephone side especially when recording or strumming hard. It’s a lot like my voice. It gets smaller the harder I dig in. Thus, I started looking for the opposite.
To complement my voice and to do what my parlor can’t. I played through every damned acoustic guitar in Nashville and didn’t like any that were less than 4k… which was roughly 4k out of my price range. I slowly realized that I liked the airiness of lightly finished guitars, which was what drew me to the average Larrivee in the first place. Then I found myself longing for low overtones.
Usually I’d only find those really well kept Gibson and Martin dreadnoughts from the 1940’s through 60’s. In other words, guitars that are 4k and up. Even if I could afford that, I wouldn’t take such a guitar on tour. So I kept funneling through Larrivee after Larrivee. Then I played a baritone. I already had an electric Fender telecaster baritone, but I’d never even seen an acoustic baritone guitar before. Just holding it in my hands felt like it was already humming to me with its low overtones.
In true broke musician style, I played it a bit, hung it back on the wall of the shop, and wondered if there were any used ones online. Lucky for me, there was one back in Missouri close to where my dad lived. I bought it on Reverb while I was over in Europe and then half a year later I came back to find a guitar I’d almost forgotten about. It was great! I’ve been writing a lot with that guitar ever since. Half the songs on the new record bring in the baritone.
Not only does it give my voice a nice bed when it occupies the spectrum of sound below my vocals, where the guitar sound no longer competes with it, but it also gives me a lot more live options to easily capo around and sing in other keys that I would otherwise have to transpose chords to relearn. The Larrivee BT-03 is my big growling monster of a friend. I’ll take it on tour in a few weeks.
Ian Fisher's Go Gentle album is out February 7.
Photo by Talitha Lahme
