Longtime Guild member Dana Bourgeois has been building, repairing, designing, and manufacturing acoustic guitars since 1974. As part of Pantheon Guitars, Dana runs one of the premier small-production guitar shops in the country.
▪ bio current as of 2013
2013
AL#113 p.50
Roger Alan Skipper Dana Bourgeois Frank Ford Charles Freeborn David Freeman Evan Gluck John Greven George Gruhn Arnold M.J. Hennig Bruce Petros Andy Powers Tim Shaw Marc Silber Robert Steinegger
▪ 13 builders discuss various aspects of 12-string guitars.
2011
AL#107 p.69
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Best top thickness for an all mahogany 12 fret 000-15 replica.
2011
AL#105 p.24 ALA4 p.58
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Bourgeois steps through the process of voicing a top. From his 2008 convention workshop.
2009
AL#99 p.22 ALA1 p.36
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Taken from his 2008 GAL convention lecture, the author explains the basic functioning of a guitar top and how he manipulates the plates and braces to achieve the sound he’s after. Mostly, he says, he’s after the most different tap tones that the top and back can produce, but there are many other details given along the way. Bourgeois is often regarded as one of the champions of tap tuning. With 9 photos, 6 charts, and a bunch of diagrams.
2007
AL#92 p.66
Dana Bourgeois Mark Campellone John Greven
▪ Pricing standards and retail price structure varies and is negotiable between builder and retailer. Figures are discussed.
2003
AL#76 p.60 BRB6 p.510
Dana Bourgeois
▪ This is an episode in the series that even digiphobes will enjoy, taking the file to the CNC man to actually make necks by computer-guided milling machine. This is not a machine that most of us will ever own, or even want to, but it’s obvious how effectively it might add to ones output. With 15 photos.
2003
AL#74 p.62 BRB7 p.33
Dana Bourgeois
▪ A CNC machining company that takes custom CNC neck orders of as little as 30 in quantity / glued on VS bridges on flattop guitars.
2002
AL#71 p.58 BRB6 p.510
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Drawing the neck in CAD continues with the headstock design.
2002
AL#70 p.58 BRB6 p.510
Dana Bourgeois
▪ This segment begins instruction in drawing a neck using MasterCam Draft, Version 8. If you stumble onto the perfect neck and wish to have it machine reproduced you may have to know this stuff. With 3 drawings.
2002
AL#69 p.59 BRB6 p.510
Dana Bourgeois
▪ How to use Mastercam’s Scale function to generate a fret pattern. With 1 diagram.
2001
AL#68 p.62 BRB6 p.510
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Previous columns saw the creation of a 3D wireframe computer image of a dreadnought guitar body. In this installment a 2D profile of a side is extracted from the software, from which the side set can be cut to shape before bending. With 6 diagrams.
2001
AL#67 p.51 BRB6 p.510
Dana Bourgeois
▪ In the last installment we learned how to make a computerized outline of a guitar body using Mastercam software. In this installment we learn how to make a wireframe image that suggests three dimensions. With 5 diagrams.
2001
AL#66 p.60 BRB6 p.510
Dana Bourgeois
▪ In this segment the author instructs how to get Mastercam Draft software to draw the outline of a particular guitar body. The one you want, that is, not just any old outline.
2001
AL#65 p.48 BRB6 p.510
Dana Bourgeois
▪ No doubt many of us pursue lutherie as an escape from an ever-escalating technology that the rest of the world imposes upon us. If that’s you, skip this new column. If, however, you see yourself entering lutherie as a business you may find yourself shut out of future developments if you can’t speak CAD (Computer Aided Design). Bourgeois’ arguments for getting involved are strong, and you may even find a degree of fun in the pursuit. Working with Mastercam software to design guitars and parts will be the focus of future columns.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2000
AL#61 p.28 BRB6 p.18
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Ten years after the GAL convention lecture that made him a guru to most of the steelstring clan, Bourgeois has new information to offer about the construction and voicing of the flattop guitar. With 2 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1994
AL#40 p.28 BRB4 p.102
Dan Erlewine Tom Ribbecke Fred Campbell David Howard Sheldon Dingwall Harry Fleishman David Colburn Kathy Currier Will Bremers Jack Langley John Jordan Dana Bourgeois Heidi Spurlin Ken Fallon Dave Schneider Cary Clemments Ron Chacey Bart Reiter Mike Jarvis Greg Hoffman Dave Lindahl Tom Costanza Chuck Erickson Ralph Novak
▪ Repair pricing workshop from 1992 GAL convention.
1990
AL#24 p.16 BRB2 p.470
Dana Bourgeois
▪ This is perhaps the strongest article ever published in American Lutherie about voicing the top and bracing of the steel string guitar. The fallout from this piece has been very wide spread.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1990
AL#24 p.19 BRB2 p.476
Gila Eban Dana Bourgeois
▪ Dana discusses his favorite top woods and how they compare.
1990
AL#23 p.8 BRB2 p.386
Gila Eban Dana Bourgeois
▪ This interview took place while Bourgeois was designing acoustic guitars for Paul Reed Smith, an enterprise that never came to fruition but which led to Bourgeois starting his own company in Maine. He talks about his early days as a luthier and his association with Eric Shoenberg.
1989
AL#17 p.43 BRB2 p.199
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Bourgeois discovers a simple trick to keep his spray work uncontaminated—spray it upside down and hold it there until the lacquer flashes off.
1988
AL#14 p.17 BRB2 p.37
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Where did Martin buy their spruce from year to year during their vintage days? Bourgeois discovered that there is no way to know, and that guitar experts are forced to guess.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1986
AL#6 p.3 BRB1 p.149
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Bourgeois comments about in inappropriateness of refretting many old Martin guitars with the “Teeter” epoxy method.
1986
AL#6 p.44 BRB1 p.177
Dana Bourgeois
▪ Bourgeois shares a method of making properly arched top braces for the contemporary “flattop” guitar.