Bourgeois Downeast OMCE Soloist

An affordable take on a legendary fingerstyle guitar.

It’s impossible to discuss contemporary interpretations of the classic Martin OM design without mentioning Dana Bourgeois. Working with OM guru Eric Schoenberg during the first iteration of Schoenberg Guitars in the 1980s, Dana created the blueprint of modern OMs by adding a cutaway, using more contemporary neck profiles, and voicing the guitars specifically for fingerstyle playing. Bourgeois Guitar still makes the resulting Soloist model (check out our demo of the commemorative 30th anniversary edition), and Schoenberg Guitars continues to offer high-end Soloists. A few years ago, Bourgeois collaborated with Eastman Guitars to build their Touchstone models, which feature tops selected and braced at the Bourgeois shop in Maine, and then assembled in the Eastman factory in China. Now with a well-trained team at Eastman able to do all the work, Bourgeois is offering the Downeast line, including a Soloist model. In this video, Peghead Nation’s Teja Gerken demos the guitar—a worthy Soloist with a significantly more affordable price tag.

Bourgeois Downeast OMCE Soloist

• 14-fret 000/OM body with cutaway
• Aged-Tone torrefied Sitka spruce top
• Indian rosewood back and sides
• Honduran mahogany neck
• Ebony fingerboard
• Ebony bridge
• 25.5-inch scale
• 1¾-inch nut width
• 2⁵/₁₆-inch string-spacing at saddle
• Open gear tuning machines
• L.R. Baggs HiFi pickup
• Made in China
• Price $2,199 street

bourgeoisguitars.com

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