Furch Guitars?

[Murph]

I happened to be (?) in Mountain View Arkansas a few months back. Cool little town, has open jam sessions all over the place on weekends, tons of acoustic music. Beautiful drive to get there from here, great motorcycle road.

 

Wandered into a little crowded music store downtown and spent a few minutes on a Furch. Had never seen one before, played pretty well and was pretty loud actually. Just wondered if anybody here ever spent any time with one, or owned one.

[ksdaddy]

I had never heard of them until about 3 months ago. There was a 17" archtop on ebay with the brand name Furch, made in the Czech Republic. An austere looking creature. It was buy-it-now (used) for $550 or so. I hesitated and lost. I've been kicking myself ever since because they seldom come up for sale. For that money I would have given it a chance.

[j45nick]

I believe forum member EuroAussie plays one, along with his Gibsons.

[Kaiser Bill]

Next time you are in Mountain View, head to the intersection of Webb and Massey streets. They are named for my old boss. He donated a ton of musical equipment to the town. He said he used to hang out on the courthouse steps and pick bluegrass music in his younger days.

[DRC]

One of the local shops is a Furch dealer and I've played several, both dreads and OMs. From my experience, they're excellent sounding guitars favoring bass response, lightly built...much like the new J series Gibsons. I would have purchased one, except the shop owner had issues with the bridges beginning to lift on a couple new Furch's, as well as a developing top crack on one. So I've stayed away. But I was impressed with the tone. I haven't spoken to the shop owner in a while, so I need to contact him and see if he's still a Furch dealer and if so, if he's had any more issues.

 

DC

[Jayyj]

I've been a Furch dealer for some time so must have played hundreds, and really rate them. We started investing in them after parting ways with Taylor a few years back so from my perspective they fill that niche very well, but they have their own distinct sound which a lot of people prefer to the cheaper Martin models. I love the Cedar / Mahogany and Spruce / Ovankol models, they seem like a lot of guitar for the money. They make some really cool whacky stuff as well but they only ever seem to make a few of each so they're hard to get hold of.

[Fullmental Alpinist]

Murph,

 

Furch is the European name for Stone Bridge guitars (US/Canada). However, I think their marketing department agreed this past year to start using the Furch name here.

 

Here's a link to their website which is worth checking out (or more correctly Czech-ing out): Stone Bridge/Furch.

 

One of the many guitarists who use their gits is Calum Graham who I admire: Calum Graham.

 

 

FMA

[EuroAussie]

I believe forum member EuroAussie plays one, along with his Gibsons.

 

Yes, indeed Nick. I have Pragues biggest Furch dealer 5 mins from my house, so played all the models. Own the 32sm OM model, aged spruce over mahogany and would rate it in the top three guitars in my stable.

 

I find Furch to have a voice of their own but are inspired by Taylor in the GA shape and Martin in terms of dreads and OM's, but much more balanced and with greater clarity.

 

They are absolute top notch guitars, I would say in the Collings range in terms overall standard and would recommend anyone to try one.

 

They are marketed as Stonebridge in the US and UK but I believe they will be dropping that branding and going Furch globally.

 

Definitely worth a fiddle ...