Very good deal on a Borges at Gryphon

[hieu]

Actually i was considering 3 Borges for sale at good price including that one at Gryphon. All 3 were snapped up in 1 week, and i've got one. Now the Borges is one of my favorite.

However, this Borges 000 from Dreamguitar sounds great. Mine is also a Borges 000 but with Indian Rosewood, and i found the tonal color to be very similar in the Dreamguitar clip.

[hieu]

Can anybody help to comment on earlier vs. later Borges if there are any developments or tonal changes? From what i observe, the later Borges 2010+ like this one at Dreamguitar seem to go for a bit higher prices vs. the older ones 2000+.

[usb_chord]

Originally Posted by hieu

Can anybody help to comment on earlier vs. later Borges if there are any developments or tonal changes? From what i observe, the later Borges 2010+ like this one at Dreamguitar seem to go for a bit higher prices vs. the older ones 2000+.

Julius was constantly working to improve the voice of his guitars and I know he got pretty obsessive about getting a stronger, thicker tonality from the unwound strings, particularly with his OMs. He *really* spent a lot of time working on that over the years, though a lot of the accounts of his actual words on the matter were lost when the old Collings forum went belly up.

I'm sure some folks here have more information than I do. I've repeatedly heard things about him altering radius of the back plate in some way. I've even heard mention of changes to the back bracing and top radius. I've not verified any of this with Julius, though. I'm hopeful that Jim (Blindboyjimi) will respond! I bet he knows more about JB's process.

All that said, comparing a 000-12 fret to an OM will be wildly impractical, by my view.

[blindboyjimi]

Hi Brian & Hieu, I’m so glad you’re enjoying your new old Borges 000c. I’m too surprised by the price ranges but the newer guitars do seem to go for big prices since there are no more being made. Jules base price was $11,000 when he retired. The one at Dream guitars is priced as a new one would be. But it definitely sounds great. That’s OK as my OM-18GG is still worth his price to me, as is the 000-18 (OM-18 short scale) at TNAG right now for $9,500. I look at that one almost every day, as I love short scale guitars and those are very rare in Borges guitars. The 000-c 12 fret they have is a very good deal, but I have not played it. That’s the only Carl Miner demo I don’t love - I dig the funk and rhythmic strumming and incredible talent, but he palm mutes it so you can’t really hear the tone. Carl is a master among masters so he may have just picked it up and felt it’s lightness and a percussiveness or something. Kim Sherman said they were going to re-make a video, and I love the baritone as well. That’s a one of a kind and in sunburst. It looks like Lyndsay made one here and she does a great job playing all 3:



I’ve talked with Jules about building me a short scale 000-28, but I think he really feels the OM is better in his hands.

I also saw the OM just pop up on Blue-G so I’m wondering who got that one. It was someone on the AGF initially. It was a guitar Jules built and kept for himself. He offered it to me, and I’m sad I didn’t have the means at the time, but it looks like it sold in a day for a good price. I’m still praying for a “semi-retirement”. We talked a few months ago about my guitar which was to be his last. I was last on his closed list for years, then I got sick, had surgery, and delayed it and then Covid hit, and then he needed time off so we are both still hoping for that to happen. We’ve got the wood picked out already. It’ll be and OM sized version of the Stefan Grossman HJ-38 (Adi/Madi) and if he’ll do it in short scale or sunburst, all the better.

We’ve talked about his building and working to keep the vintage dryness of tone while keeping the bass deep and thick trebles. I know he was a fan a Elixir HD strings which put mediums in the trebles and lights on the bass or basically a backwards Bluegrass set.