Few luthiers have spent as much time studying vintage guitars as Dana Bourgeois. From his beginnings as a repairman to his years in the early 1990s essentially reinventing the OM with Eric Schoenberg to creating classic American flattop designs as the foundation for his own line of Bourgeois guitars, Dana has always respected the past while looking to the future. Some of Bourgeois’s newer designs, such as the Odyssey, leave no doubt about Dana’s desire to push the envelope, but with features like an innovative bolt-on neck and tonal voicing that reflects a more contemporary tonality, all of Dana’s instruments are more modern than their appearance implies. We recently had a chance to check out a Bourgeois 000 Country Boy (which came to us courtesy of Northern Lights Music in Littleton, New Hampshire). It’s a hot-rodded take on a vintage design, and in this video, I demo the guitar in the Peghead Nation studio.
Fundamentally, the Bourgeois 000 Country Boy is a version of the classic 14-fret 000 design. It has a short scale (though Bourgeois’s 25-inch scale is a tad longer than the 24.9-inch scale found on vintage Martins) and its “Country Boy” designation means that its woods and appointments essentially make it a style-18 instrument. Our demo guitar varies from a standard Country Boy with its top of Aged Tone Adirondack spruce, rather than Sitka spruce, and it has ¼-inch wide X-braces instead of the ⁵/₁₆-inch braces typically used on 000s. The guitar’s woods are superb. The mahogany is rich in color and beautifully grained, and the top has the slightly darkened color typical of heat-treated Aged Tone spruce. Bourgeois’s craftsmanship is as clean as it gets in every regard, and I wouldn’t hesitate to call it perfect. True to its style-18 roots, the instrument’s appearance is simple, putting functionality over elaborate appointments.
I found the 000 Country Boy to be an incredibly fun guitar to play. It’s ultra-responsive, has great tonal focus and clarity, and sounds a lot like a well-worn vintage guitar. I often prefer OMs over 000s because they tend to have a bit more power and dynamic range due to their longer scale, but this particular guitar lacks nothing in those regards, and its OM-like neck width and string spacing make it an excellent fingerstyle guitar, while still offering the sweetness that 14-fret 000s are known for when played with a flatpick.
Bourgeois calls the Country Boy series “Your daily driver; everything you need, nothing you don’t,” and I have to agree. This would be a wonderful do-everything guitar with great playability, classic tone, and heirloom-quality materials and construction. Well-done, Dana and team!
SPECS: 000 body with 14-fret neck. Solid Adirondack spruce top with Aged Tone treatment. ¼-inch X-bracing. Mahogany back and sides. Mahogany neck. Ebony fretboard and bridge. 25-inch scale. 1¾-inch nut width. 2⁵/₁₆-inch string spacing at saddle. Waverly tuners. Made in the USA. $6,899. Bourgeoisguitars.com
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