Furch?

TheBigDipper

chromatuna said:

I visited Guitar Village three years ago with every intention of buying a Martin and the cash to do so thanks to a pension commencement lump sum (yes I’m and old geezer). I had done my research, lots of reading etc. Played six or seven and just couldn’t get excited, my forty year old Japanese D18 copy was pretty much in the same league. This is not to knock Martins but they clearly weren’t what I needed. Recalled a comment somewhere about Furch acquiring some great tone woods, picked one up an bham! Yes that’s what I am looking for. I can’t tell you the model as I am away at the moment and can never remember it (cedar topped) but it’s lovely. A friend has a couple of Martins and had a Maton, all very nice but the Furch is just as good and for me the best of the lot, personal taste and all that. So definitely worth trying, I saved myself about £1 - £1.5k although that wasn’t the deciding factor. YMMV p.s. my acoustic ‘heroes’ are guys like Richard Thompson, and Martin Simpson

This resonated with me. I once (2015?) spent the best part of a day playing different Martins there when I was looking for a smaller guitar than my L'Arrivee L-01. I played lots of OMs and 00s/000s at various bling and price points. All of them were flat and dead sounding. They all played nicely, but didn't sound like anything special at all. I was both surprised and disappointed. Kudos to GV for just letting me get on with it, BTW. 

Two days later I was in Project Music and came home with a Brook Taw. And even then it was odd how some guitars speak to you and others do not. There was one Taw (spruce top/rosewood body) that reminded me of all those Martin OMs - a bit flat.  There was another (spruce top/bubinga body) that sang like a piano when gently played and that's the one I own. 

There's no substitute for playing as many as possible - and putting your prejudices about nut width, neck radius, number of frets to the body to the side. All that does is reduce the number of guitars you might be surprised by and love. 

Tannin

TheBigDipper said:

Two days later I was in Project Music and came home with a Brook Taw. And even then it was odd how some guitars speak to you and others do not. There was one Taw (spruce top/rosewood body) that reminded me of all those Martin OMs - a bit flat.  There was another (spruce top/bubinga body) that sang like a piano when gently played and that's the one I own. 

There's no substitute for playing as many as possible - and putting your prejudices about nut width, neck radius, number of frets to the body to the side. All that does is reduce the number of guitars you might be surprised by and love. 

Just so, only excepting nut width which is a non-negotiable for me. I'm flexible within a certain range, but anything less than 44mm is unplayable in my book. (At least not if I want to sound any good, which I still have fantasies about doing one day.) Very much prefer a bit more than that, but 44mm will do if everything else is right.

^ But all of that is off the topic I wanted to pick up on. Like you I also played two very similar Brooks in Project Music when I was there in July, both of them in spruce and rosewood. Same body as I recall, or perhaps just very similar, I forget already. And they were quite different! I wouldn't say one was better than the other, though my friend and I did both prefer the first one to the second one.  But we both liked them both. Just a matter of personal taste - but for two guitars with theoretically identical timbers in the same body from the same maker to be so different really was interesting. 

One thing to watch out for. I do two things when I go guitar shopping which I think really hold me in good stead. 

* Use a known reference guitar to calibrate your ears. Every room is different, and I think one hears things differently on different days. So I always bring one of my own guitars in as a baseline. If that is impractical, I ask to play something I know well and like. (In my case, being far from home, it was one of Project Music's Matons - guitars I know very well and like. For another player it might be a J-45 or an OM-28 - anything you reckon will give you a known starting point before you play the other ones you fancy.

* Tune to standard! I take a clip-on tuner with me. At Project Music (and I've seen the same in other shops) all the guitars were more-or-less in tune, but they were not all in the same tune! Several were in about Eb and one was closer to D. This makes a huge difference to how a guitar sounds and feels! You can very easily conclude that (say) the Furch is dull and flat compared to the Lakewood when in fact the former is tuned to Eb and the later is in concert pitch. Or you might think the Lakewood is harder to play and bend notes on when actually it's the same as the Furch, just tuned higher.

ditchboy

If you get the chance try a Larrivee too, I always regretted moving mine on. I have owned a Furch also, both are really well made guitars. 

thomasross20

ditchboy said:

If you get the chance try a Larrivee too, I always regretted moving mine on. I have owned a Furch also, both are really well made guitars. 

Thank heavens somebody said this as I didn't want to (again) lol....

Littlejonny

Annoyingly, I’ve realised that Richards Guitars is closed on Sundays and only open until 4pm on Saturdays. Fair enough, but I work on Saturdays until 12:30 and this Saturday my daughter has to be taken to a birthday party. We can do it next weekend, and I’ll have approx 2hrs to make my choice. I’ll update you all then!

BigPaulie

I'd love a bash on a Furch.

If you're going to Richard's try a Dowina as well.

I've had words with Richard in the past. If you disagree with any of his opinions, or his business model you'll fall out with him. I know people who have bought from him purely on be a customer/supplier basis and they can't recommend his products and service highly enough.

guitarjack66

BigPaulie said:

I'd love a bash on a Furch.

If you're going to Richard's try a Dowina as well.

I've had words with Richard in the past. If you disagree with any of his opinions, or his business model you'll fall out with him. I know people who have bought from him purely on be a customer/supplier basis and they can't recommend his products and service highly enough.

So avoid speaking about anything other than your purchase?

Tannin

He has a heap of lovely-looking instruments, that's for sure.

Benm39

I tried a Furch at Coda,  beautiful limited edition OM model 2018 LX 

https://furchguitars.com/en/instruments/limited-editions/2018-limited-edition/

I was intent also on trying some Brook guitars.  The Furch was a lovely instrument and it's only really the small scale production of Brook and that I grew up in Devon that ultimately meant I bought the Taw instead of the Furch. 

Smellyfingers

I traded a lovely 2019 Furch dreadnought to Glenn’s guitars in Enfield, I think it is still on sale for around £700(don’t worry - he’s probably cleaned it!), I think it would cost about >£1200 new.

Maybe because they don’t have the wide name recognition of the big American(or British) brands their used values can be a bargain.

Tannin

Smellyfingers said:

Maybe because they don’t have the wide name recognition of the big American(or British) brands their used values can be a bargain.

British brands? Name recognition?

Smellyfingers

Tannin said:

Smellyfingers said:

Maybe because they don’t have the wide name recognition of the big American(or British) brands their used values can be a bargain.

British brands? Name recognition?

I guess I was thinking Lowden or Atkin in the UK.

Tannin

Lowden are known worldwide as a quality mid-size maker. You can buy Lowdens in Auckland or Yokohama or Melbourne or Madrid or San Francisco  I shouldn't think anybody outside the UK ever heard of Atkin. Well, apart from me and a few others of my ilk, but I'm a nerd. 

But in the UK, sure. Aitkin seems to be quite well known and I don't recall anybody having a bad word to say about them.

Still both are minnows compared to Furch, which has become a major worldwide player. 

BigPaulie

Smellyfingers said:

Tannin said:

Smellyfingers said:

Maybe because they don’t have the wide name recognition of the big American(or British) brands their used values can be a bargain.

British brands? Name recognition?

I guess I was thinking Lowden or Atkin in the UK.

Lowden are an Irish brand. Not British. ,;-p

Dave_Mc

BigPaulie said:

Smellyfingers said:

Tannin said:

Smellyfingers said:

Maybe because they don’t have the wide name recognition of the big American(or British) brands their used values can be a bargain.

British brands? Name recognition?

I guess I was thinking Lowden or Atkin in the UK.

Lowden are an Irish brand. Not British. ,;-p

Northern Ireland I think.

Dave_Mc

BigPaulie said:

If you're going to Richard's try a Dowina as well.

Yeah definitely. 

guitarjack66

Dave_Mc said:

BigPaulie said:

Smellyfingers said:

Tannin said:

Smellyfingers said:

Maybe because they don’t have the wide name recognition of the big American(or British) brands their used values can be a bargain.

British brands? Name recognition?

I guess I was thinking Lowden or Atkin in the UK.

Lowden are an Irish brand. Not British. ,;-p

Northern Ireland I think.

UK brand then.

guitarjack66

BigPaulie said:

Smellyfingers said:

Tannin said:

Smellyfingers said:

Maybe because they don’t have the wide name recognition of the big American(or British) brands their used values can be a bargain.

British brands? Name recognition?

I guess I was thinking Lowden or Atkin in the UK.

Lowden are an Irish brand. Not British. ,;-p.

Slightly off topic but I was in Frailers the other day and saw a couple of Lowdens. Despite it being overpriced,even the Ed Sheeran model looked nice. I didnt pick any up to play though.

Dave_Mc

guitarjack66 said:

Dave_Mc said:

BigPaulie said:

Smellyfingers said:

Tannin said:

Smellyfingers said:

Maybe because they don’t have the wide name recognition of the big American(or British) brands their used values can be a bargain.

British brands? Name recognition?

I guess I was thinking Lowden or Atkin in the UK.

Lowden are an Irish brand. Not British. ,;-p

Northern Ireland I think.

UK brand then.

I don't think there's an adjective "UK-ish", lol, British is usually used even though technically NI isn't in GB but is in the UK as you rightly point out. Of course if he (Lowden, I mean) wants to be Irish he's allowed to be Irish too, which is absolutely fine- I was just (slightly) taking issue with @BigPaulie acting like @Smellyfingers was silly for thinking they're British. It's not silly- they are if you want them to be, kind of thing.

I could be wrong, but I'm assuming they pay UK tax, for example.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/NI054467

Registered on Companies House...

Littlejonny

Hi OP here…I made the journey to Richards Guitars today and spent a couple of hours playing on guitars. So many beautiful guitars in there - absolutely fantastic. Customer service was amazing as well. 

All the guitars were lovely - the Dowinas look great but were a little bass-light.. The Audens were the opposite - really warm and deep, but slightly subdued and compressed. The Furch guitars I tried blew my head off though. I’ve never played a cedar topped steel string before and I’m loved it. 

I genuinely couldn’t decide between a Blue GC CM and a Yellow GC CR. The former was 999 and the latter 1800 (lowest price he could do). It seems the Blue was exceptionally good for the price but there was an extra 5% more silkiness and bass to the Yellow. 

They had a beautiful second hand Lowden for 2800 that I felt was comparable to these guitars, albeit slightly louder and with a pingy frequency in the upper mids that I think I’d get annoyed with eventually. 

It was so good of them to let me spend the time trying them out. I went in with an open mind and I was impressed with all the guitars. The Eastmans were really impressive as well. I was close to choosing the AC222ce, but the Furch’s were clearly a step up.

Now to complicate matters there’s a Stonebridge G23-CR in guitarguitar for 849! I could save 1K…and I’ve just checked YouTube vids on these and they sound like the Yellow series to my ears.

what would you do?