Bourgeois Coupe OO Cutaway Comparison
The Coupe OO Cutaway is the ultimate couch guitar with real tone in spades. At Northern Lights Music we are fortunate to every once in a while get a number of guitars with similar body shapes and contrasting materials. A customer inquired about a comparison of the Coupe Cutaways we have in stock and I discovered we have three for sale all at the same time. A perfect opportunity to compare the tone of these guitars.
When doing comparisons there are a couple limiting factors to consider including similarity in body size, variation of top woods and back woods. In this case, all the body shapes are the same, even the top woods are all Adirondack Spruce. The real difference with these guitars is the back and side materials. Mahogany, Indian Rosewood and Brazilian Rosewood are the top three guitar hard woods. Legendary, each in its own right.
While Mahogany is valued for its rich pronounced mid range, Indian Rosewood tends to have a more balanced frequency range adding more bass and Trebles. Brazilian Rosewood to my ear has a warmth and richness similar to Mahogany but with excellent bass and trebles, with a roundness to the tone that is easy on the ear. Adirondack is a nice upgrade that Dana Bourgeois re-popularized. It has excellent dynamic range with a rich meaty tone and lots of articulation.
What makes the Bourgeois Coupe OO Cutaway so special? It is 12 fret to the body, cutaway so you can get to those higher frets but unlike other smaller guitars these have a girth to them both in tone and feel. Bourgeois guitars are not for the faint of heart. They have a meaty, warm, rich and complex tone. If you are used to over braced, dead sounding, hard to play guitars these may not be for you. If you value complex overtones, throaty bass and a punchy direct volume these may be your perfect match.
It is no secret how Dana Bourgeois creates some of the best sounding guitars on the planet. He has been a vocal proponent of tap tuned, hand voiced guitar tops. His guitars are lightly braced, taking advantage of the inherent stiffness presented in the highest quality guitar tops. That is why Dana is super particular about the tops he chooses for his guitars. The hand voicing, tuning the wood like "Marimba Keys" allows the guitars to vibrate with a musicality you don't get with common over braced instruments.
All in all the Bourgeois Coupe OO Cutaway will continue to be a top seller and a favorite for all of the home pickers that value a guitar with a little more comfort when picking around the house. Stay tuned, I am working with James Witkus, the production manager at Bourgeois on the first Coupe OO Cutaway with a beveled arm rest. It will feature a Tier II Brazilian Rosewood, the binding and arm rest will be a striking Cocobolo, the top being Redwood.