2023 Bourgeois Frankfort Bluegrass Festival Custom Dreadnought guitar

November 08, 2024

2023 Bourgeois Frankfort Bluegrass Festival Custom Dreadnought guitar

Overview: This Bourgeois is a thoroughbred. The company itself is one of the country's premier workshops and this vintage-inspired, D-28-a-like dreadnought is about the classiest interpretation of the classic Martin style that I've seen come through our shop here -- and we've seen a lot of D-28 clones. This particular model is a Custom D and built to spec for the raffle drawing at the 2023 Frankfort (Illinois) Bluegrass Festival. Everything about it is premium-grade stuff and the instrument is virtually unplayed. It's basically a brand-new guitar and I've been hiding it in the back, in its case, to keep it that way at the shop.

Tone: It's robust, full, rich, saucy, and powerful -- it sounds like a very, very, very good '30s D-28 but without the woofy "spongey" sound some of the old gals get as they get too opened-up.

Feel: Again, this has a classic '30s Martin-style nck profile -- a soft medium V shape with a lighter-radius, 14" board. If you're into prewar Martins, this is the feel. It's surprisingly-quick despite itself.

Interesting features: It has an Adirondack spruce top over Brazilian rosewood back and sides. The herringbone trim is multi-toned brown which gives a really nice effect compared to a tradtional black/white look. Everything about the guitar is crisp, precise, and beautifully-made. The bridge has a modern, drop-in style saddle slot for which I am eternally grateful and the truss rod is easy to adjust (through the brace at the soundhole) with the supplied wrench (for which I am also grateful).

Repairs included: All I had to do was give it a restring and setup. It plays spot-on and has plenty of adjustment room. It was almost setup perfectly from the builder but needed jut a hair of tweaking at the saddle and truss.