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I have the same or similar guitar, D-09 BRW with traditional neck. Great guitar, but dosnt get as much attantion at the L or P. I'm not a repair expert, but I'm guessing you should let this thing soak up a bunch of moisture and then reasses the situation. These usually come set up fairly well from the factory, or at lease the ones I've bought and played in the stores.

I'm right up the road in Milwaukee and I can tell you that I have issues keeping things humidified even while being anal about it. When its cold cold, i cant get the shop above 38%. Thats after sealing off the rafters and spaces and running one humidifier and one vaporizer all the time. It can drop to 20% fast. So if someone takes no steps to humidify, i can see major problems. Its 45 F now and supposed to drop to -4 F tonight. Burrrrrrr.

is excessive f-board extension fall away really a problem?

I agree with letting the guitar re-humidify, but i would`nt expect miracles...and certainly I would`nt replace the UFB.

does the guitar buzz, or are there any issues with the playability of the guitar? if the relife is ok, then what is it about the fall away that bothers you?

I used to build at 45% humidity in my shop....but now i build at 30 to 35%. this has really helped with my winter stability issues.
Most people are going to dry out their guitars no matter how much you educate them on the subject, so I build on the dry side to be safe. my guitars are their happiest during this time of year.

Matt

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Having fun building guitars

If you are sure nothing is loose and the guy doesn't play up there, I think you should leave it alone.

What kind of fretboard is it? Any issues with fret ends? Is the board slab sawn? Larrivee may have used an inadequately dried or slab cut board. The kind of drop you are describing, with good neck angle, action height, no top cracks around the board, etc. would likely be caused by warp in the fretboard extension pushing down the top, rather than the top, braces, etc. pulling down the board.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Hi Todd, sorry but I haven't been at the computer much over the past few days.

If everything else seems fine with the extension fall away being the only real symptom when it gets back, I'd probably leave it. I don't know though, as when something gets that dried out it can be so temperamental. I may very well be concerned with the top in the upper bout being compromised, leaving that whole shoulders to waist area prone to further warping and twisting. Quite frankly, I really don't know what I'd personally do until I'd had the chance to see how it responded to re-humidification. That sounds like an awful lot for it to go concave - that's the kind of job I would probably tell the customer to leave it with me for a while so I can look at it, humidify, ponder, mull, push, flex, think some more, and wait for the appropriate solution to become apparent.

Hopefully, waiting for the guitar to come back re-humidified will make the repair options easier to decide on. Good luck.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Hey, you should post this over at Guitar Talk, the Acoustic Guitar Magazine site. There's a guy there who goes by the name "Ducktrapper" who swears that Larrivees are so perfectly built that they'll never need a neck reset. I wonder what he'd say to this...

Nobody's guitars are so perfectly built that they'll never need a neck reset or whatever at some point unless they're perfectly overbuilt. This whole issue of the fingerboard hinging at the body joint is a major design flaw with most acoustic guitars, and by most, I'd put it at 99.9% of them. They drop off; they ramp up; they do anything but stay predictable and proper. It's why some of us have stopped attaching the fingerboards to the tops...including Bob Taylor.