Thanks guys.
I never thought I would own Bourgeois. Heck I still have to look to spell it!
Now I can tell ya "the rest of the story"
I have been on a short scale/00 quest. I love my cheapy Epi 00 24.75 and just knew there had to be more out there. I started looking at old Gibson 00's. They were either dead, dying, severely restored or out of my price range. The new Gibsons I found sounded like expensive shoe boxes. Then my Electrician swung by with his 59' Martin 24.9. It looks like Triggers cousin but oh what a sound.
It was not for sale. Ebay showed me the Martin was cheaper than the Gibson.
But, again, dead, dying or $$$$. So, I wandered into Acoustic Music Works to see if he had any Chinese short scale 14 fretters. He handles Blueridge, Eastman. I don't know their stuff so I was not sure what they offered. Blueridge has a nice 12 fretter OO. But, no 14 fretters. Then Steve played his card
He put the Bourgeois 00 Country boy in my hands. It is built basically to the Martin 24.9 14 fret 00. Pure wow. I have never gotten so worked up over a guitar. I went back the next day with my Epi. Not to compare tone but to compare size. The upper Bout was my concern. If it is over 11 inches or fat my shoulder doesn't care what the label calls it. As an example; I looked at the Masterbuilt EF5OORA - The upper bout is OM sized (to me).
The Country Boy was smaller by a 1/2" Yep, it was love.
So, I did the "oh what can I sell to get her" game. My wife asked me what I was so worked up over (as I was putting 5 dreds in a row to sell on eBay). I figured sell the Cargo, deposit, pay it off in a month....... She said "Use the dough you were going to spend going to the Newport show"
Nope, you can't have her!
So, (Tuesday) I called Steve. Debit card in Hand...... "well, I have a clean used one coming in"......UGHHHHHHHH. I was ready to buy the new one. The tone was what I loved. But, it was quite a savings in Bucks to buy the used one. I had to wait till Friday to see it. Tick, tick, tick. And praying Steve would not sell the one I had played. It would not have been fair to ask him to hold it on a maybe.
Friday came. I had a 2 hour window to drive in look at the 2, decide, and get back to work to pay for her!
Looks;I really was not swayed much by the looks of one over the other. Interesting how different they were built. The new one has a satin Zircote Head stock laminate, Ivoriod Logo, Vintage round knob tuners. The used one had a Gloss Zircote, Ablone logo, butterbean tuners.
Tone. Maybe it was the type of strings? Maybe it was how much they'd been played? The used guitar was really "unused". They sounded very similar. But, there was something in the new ones tone that was not in the used one. So, Short story long. I bought the new one.
I zipped back to my gig. Half an hour later I was playing "Wheels on the bus" for 20 3 year olds with the prettiest sounding guitar I have heard
Hey, there is a nice, nice used Country Boy at Acoustic Music Works!