Bourgeois Down East OMCE Soloist

The Bourgeois Downeast OMCE Soloist features an Aged Tone torrefied Sitka spruce top, an Indian rosewood body, and a 1 3/4-inch fingerstyle nut. In keeping with the Soloist’s long tradition, the finish is understated yet elegant, with wood binding and purfling, square and diamond-shaped position markers in a short pattern, and a rectangular ebony bridge inspired by vintage models.

The OMC Soloist is one of Bourgeois’ most important innovations. The model was designed in collaboration with Eric Schoenberg and produced by Martin for Schoenberg Guitars in the 1980s. The original Schoenberg Soloist preceded Martin’s own reintroduction of the now iconic Orchestra Model, production of which had ended in the early 1930s. Today, the OM, in all its versions, is the second most popular acoustic guitar model in the world, a tribute to the vision and pioneering work of Schoenberg and Bourgeois.

The magic of the OM emerges when a medium-sized body is combined with a long scale length and a 14-fret neck. The result is a steel-string guitar with exceptional balance and a surprisingly clear, present sound. Bourgeois turned the OM into a Soloist by designing an elegant soft cutaway, a shape that has since been widely imitated. This cutaway forms a natural complement to the vintage look, while the important relationship between the surface area, the volume of the body, and the string tension is barely affected.

Bourgeois naturally already has a successful partnership with Eastman in the form of the Touchstone series, but is taking things a step further with the new Down East Series. The guitars in this series are built entirely to Bourgeois specifications in China, with the team from Lewiston overseeing the entire process. This allows Bourgeois to offer its characteristic balance, dynamic range, and responsiveness to more guitarists than ever before, as the prices of these guitars are really competitive!

This instrument has been carefully inspected for originality, condition and playability, then set up to our Gold Standard by a luthier. We make sure it arrives in your hands exactly as it should: sounding its best, playing effortlessly and ready to be enjoyed from the very first note.