Hi Folks,
So the background story….I’ve been searching for a nice guitar that I can use at home as well as at my church to lead worship. After reading countless reviews on various websites, watching many videos of demos on youtube, and playing as much as I can here in Toronto, I decided to purchase a guitar from a builder in the US as I was amazed at the beautiful sound coming from his guitars… UNTIL! Last month, I was on a family vacation to Quebec City in Canada. I decided to check out what guitar stores are in town and saw that there was a store called Musique Gagné very close to my hotel. I walked over and was slightly disappointed to see only electric guitars on the first floor (as much as I like electric guitars and respect electric players, I only play acoustic
). I asked the employee at the counter and asked if they had any acoustic guitars and he pointed me to a stair case that led to the second floor. On the second floor, there were the common (in Canada) Godin family guitars (Seagull, Simon and Patrick, Norman, etc) and Yamahas. There was a 150th anniversary fg-180 on display as well to my surprise! What caught my attention however was a room on the second floor with a couple of taylors and around 10 Boucher guitars. I went in to the wood decorated, nicely humidified room and started playing with the taylor guitars which were nice. However, I was shocked when I picked around with the Boucher Adi/EIR OMH(OM Hybrid) and even more when I strummed. The lushness and fullness of tone that came from the guitar was truly amazing. I asked the employee if there were any other OMHs in the store and he showed me a flamed bubinga model and a cocobolo model which were also as much of a joy to play as well as to look at. I tried other models including their Dreads and 12th fret OMs but their OMHs were what I really liked for what I do (60/25/15 strumming/flatpicking/fingerstyle). I don’t think I knew what extent it could feel like for a guitar to ‘speak’ to me until then. From there, long story short, I cancelled my order from the States and ordered a custom OMH from Boucher with my dream specifications.
In conversing over the phone multiple times with Robin Boucher (Fantastic guy btw), He offered to send me several sets of photos of the build process. I decided to post them here for anyone who may be interested in looking at the awesome working that Robin has going on at Boucher guitars! Until my first batch of photos, I thought Id get this thread started with the specifications and the Madagascar rosewood sets Robin allowed me to choose from.
These are the specifications I decided on:
SIZE: OM HYBRID
- MASTER GRADE ADIRONDACK SPRUCE TOP
- MADAGASCAR ROSEWOOD B/S (Dalbergia Baronii)
- CUTAWAY (VENITIAN)
- NECK BINDING (KOA)
- GOTOH 510 GOLD PLATED TUNERS W/EBONY BUTTONS (21:1)
- ABALONE ROSETTE & SIDE DOTS
- BODY BINDING (KOA)
- BONE NUT/SADDLE
- NO FRETBOARD DOTS OR INLAY
- GOLD STRAP BUTTON
- PICKGUARD NOT APPLIED (PUT IN THE CASE)
- MADAGASCAR ROSEWOOD HEELCAP
- HISCOX (LA-BI-S (artist ivory/silver)
These are the sets I chose from (I chose 113!):
IMG_3735 by
Juhan Song, on Flickr
MDR 118 by
Juhan Song, on Flickr
Let me know which set you would have chosen and why!
Looking forward to posting the pictures, listening to your opinions and finally playing the guitar! First time doing anything like this related to a build so let me know if there’s any rule I’ve broken (hopefully not) or there’s additional information I can add! Thanks for taking the time to read!