Advancing Rural Economy

From Woods to Melodies: Bourgeois Guitar Sources Local Wood With New Sawmill Operation

Founder Dana Bourgeois and CEO Chris Fleming discuss how their Red Spruce tonewood is selected, harvested, and processed from Maine’s northern and coastal forests.

Maine has been central to the Bourgeois Guitars story since the day founder Dana Bourgeois built his first guitar in his dorm room at Bowdoin College. Now, with the doors to their custom sawmill opening this fall, Bourgeois Guitars is deepening that connection with local wood sourcing that will produce high-quality Red Spruce and domestic hardwood parts for the musical instrument industry.

Renowned for its acoustic properties, Red Spruce has long been held as the “Holy Grail” of tonewoods for building the tops of steel string guitars, and continues to be coveted today by the world’s premier guitar makers. It also happens to be one of the most abundant species in Maine’s Northern Forest.

“The majority of the guitars we build at Bourgeois are made with Red Spruce soundboards. For decades, we purchased those guitar tops from suppliers in remote parts of the country, often located thousands of miles from the nearest Red Spruce tree,” said Christopher Fleming, the CEO of Bourgeois Guitars. “Driving by mature stands of Red Spruce on my way to the shop every morning made me think, ‘What would a local model look like?’”

Investing in Local Wood and Quality

As it turns out, the benefits of sourcing and processing wood in the heart of the Northern Forests run deep. The team has greater control over the quality of the parts they produce, beginning with tree selection.

“From an economic perspective, we reduce overhead and transportation costs – savings we can reinvest into Maine’s forest economy. We pay a premium for local wood directly to the logger or landowner,” said Fleming. “And, environmentally, we feel good knowing our guitars are built with responsibly harvested wood from FSC-controlled forests. It’s a win-win-win.”

The new tonewood sawmill will be operational by the end of November, and sits near another site that will one day house the company’s new guitar factory, a central part of its long-term growth plan.

The right piece of wood is foundational to quality and sound of a musical instrument, not to mention the aesthetics. Renowned worldwide for his “tap-tuning” method of optimizing the sonic potential of tonewoods, Dana Bourgeois personally approves the selection of all tonewoods used to make their guitars. “By going directly to the source from the start, we can choose and cultivate the very best tonewood available and steward its journey from the forest to the finished guitar,” said Bourgeois.

The Process: From Woods to Rhythms

That journey begins in partnership with landowners and forest professionals. Bourgeois Guitars’ log buyer works with local loggers, foresters, and landowners in the Northern Forests to examine woodlots, identify trees suited to tonewood, explain the wood properties that are most highly valued, and procure logs. He, along with Bourgeois’ Master Sawyer, evaluates each log that is brought to the mill, providing feedback to ensure loggers are harvesting, and therefore, compensated for only the best tonewood trees.

From there, Bourgeois’ team breaks the log down little by little, examining the wood at every stage to ensure maximum quarter, minimal runout, and optimal clarity of grain within the part pattern. Finally, Dana himself examines and grades the tops before they are accepted into inventory.

“Prone to stain and rot from the outside in when stored for long periods of time, Red Spruce must be processed as quickly after its cut as possible. The local model we’re employing allows better use of the whole tree and generates far less waste,” said Fleming. “Even in responsibly managed forests, we only want to harvest what we need and nothing more.”

From the mill, the parts produced make their way down the road to Bourgeois Guitars, where a small team of highly-skilled luthiers hand-build custom guitars for players all over the world. The entire process, from tree harvest to finished guitar, happens within a small radius of the Lewiston guitar workshop.

Noting the strength of Maine’s brand and the global impact that the responsible use of Maine’s natural and human resources can have, Fleming remarked, “Our customers appreciate the same elegance and utility they’ve come to expect from Bourgeois, and now have the satisfaction of knowing their purchase supports healthy, sustainable forests and real people working in Maine’s rural economy.”

Bourgeois Guitars participated in the Center’s Telling Your Forest Story cohort, a program that helps local wood product businesses articulate their values to customers and helps increase awareness of sustainable forest management.

For Bourgeois, it was important to communicate that the Maine forest industry goes back generations and is now reinventing itself, creating the next generation of sustainable, forest economy businesses. It’s more than a local supply chain – it’s about preserving a way of life in rural America that is connected to the working landscape.

“It’s about investing in a strong forest economy. It’s about ensuring that when we harvest a tree, we create something that will last a lifetime,” said Dana Bourgeois. “Most importantly, it’s about building instruments that are not only beautiful in their own right, but that bring beauty, art, music, and human connection into the world.”

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Amy Robinson

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