Bourgeois Guitars | Touchstone - The Standard Slope D

The Bourgeois Touchstone Standard Slope D offers a blend of vintage American design and reliable construction, making it a versatile acoustic guitar suitable for a range of playing styles. Inspired by the guitars prevalent during the Depression era, the Standard model evokes a sense of classic authenticity. Its elegant, traditional appointments pay homage to this heritage.

The Slope D body shape distinguishes itself with a tonal presence that offers both boldness and warmth. While sharing a lineage with "square shouldered" Dreadnoughts, the Slope D features a curvier form, being slightly wider and deeper. A key structural difference lies in its shorter 25-inch scale length. This design has historically been favoured by country musicians and remains popular amongst various American roots music stylists, often being cited as an excellent choice for accompanying vocals. While excelling at flatpicking, the Slope D is also particularly well-regarded as a fingerpicker's Dreadnought.

The guitar features a torrefied Sitka spruce soundboard, a process that provides a warm, aged tone from the outset. This soundboard offers a dynamic response and clarity that develops further over time. The resulting sound is versatile, accommodating strumming, fingerpicking, and various techniques in between. The pairing of this soundboard with mahogany back and sides contributes to a balanced and adaptable voice, suitable for both delicate fingerpicking and more forceful strumming.

Comfort and performance are central to the design of the Standard. It features a 14-fret mahogany neck, topped with a Ziricote fingerboard and bridge, all finished with a high-gloss. The inclusion of Adirondack spruce bracing and Bourgeois' meticulous attention to detail ensures a powerful and responsive sound that matures over time. Vintage-inspired functionality is provided by Schaller Grand Tune nickel tuners. The nut width is 1 23/32 inches and is made of bone, while the saddle width is 2.2 inches and is also bone.

The Bourgeois Touchstone series benefits from the legacy of Dana Bourgeois, who began building guitars in 1975. His dedication to perfection and respect for traditional luthiery have been guiding principles for nearly 50 years. Bourgeois' innovative designs and detailed craftsmanship have established a high standard in the acoustic guitar world. His contributions range from pioneering voicing techniques to a commitment to using high-quality tonewoods, influencing the sound of numerous musicians across generations.

Each Touchstone guitar undergoes Bourgeois' tap-tuning process, a skilled technique used to optimise the natural frequencies of the soundboard. By carefully tapping the wood and listening, luthiers identify its tonal potential, achieving a balance between stiffness and durability. The braces are meticulously hand-carved to refine the top and back, enhancing resonance and tonal richness. This detailed approach results in instruments with a distinctive, harmonically balanced voice, ensuring exceptional sound quality and a testament to lasting craftsmanship.