B ryan Sutton’s 1995 Bourgeois Slope D dreadnought differs from the norm in bluegrass music and contributes to his

fresh, distinctive voice. Most hot bluegrass flatpickers stick to Martin D-28s, D-18s, or similar guitars, but Sutton wanted a different sound as well as versatility. “This guitar is incredibly loud,” says Sutton, “and it’s blessed with the right mixture of tone. It has a great midrange puffiness, but also wonderful highs.”

Although it was inspired by Gibson’s Advanced Jumbo design, the Bourgeois fea-tures a scalloped bracing pattern that is more reminiscent of a ’30s Martin dread-nought, resulting in a sound that falls some-where between the two classics. Dana Bourgeois explains that the quality of the tonewoods also contributes to the guitar’s sound. “The back and sides were sawn from the heaviest plank of mahogany that I have ever hefted,” he recalls. “The plank was per-fectly quartersawn and heavily figured. This wood had a tap tone more like Brazilian rose-wood than mahogany, with a resonant and complex top and bottom end.” The guitar’s top is made from Alaskan Sitka spruce and fea-tures a pronounced bearclaw figure. It was cut from a reclaimed log that had been used in a salmon trap and was submerged for more than 50 years. Bourgeois describes it as “incredibly stiff, light, and hard.”

Bourgeois designed the Slope D to be the ideal instrument for accompanying singers, but in this case the materials overwhelmed the design. “It has the kind of sound that I strive for in my bluegrass guitars,” says Bourgeois, “and in that sense it is an anomaly. Besides having great treble presence, it also has a deeper bass than is usually associated with mahogany guitars. And it’s much louder than what I can usually get out of mahogany and Sitka.” This presence and volume led Sutton to dub the guitar the Banjo Killer. n

1995 Bourgeois Slope DBy Teja Gerken

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