Kentucky Thunder, l-r: Paul Brewster, Andy Leftwich, Mark Fain, Skaggs, Jim Mills, Cody Kilby
I’ve always tried to find, instruments that
inspire me and play me… I think that’s the
mark of a great guitar, a great instrument
of any kind—one that inspires the player
to the point it is playing you, you’re just
holding it. So I love these PRS guitars.
Both models are awesome.
What about the Bourgeois?
We talked about doin’ a signature model
a couple years ago, and I said, “Well,
let’s think about doin’ something that’s
a dreadnought, like a D150, but really
dressed out, beautiful to look at, wonderful to play, something that would be like
a collector’s item. We don’t want to do
a D45, but if you could do a Bourgeois
to the nth degree, what would you want
to do?” So we talked about AAA fancy
Brazillian rosewood sides and back, really
choice Adirondack spruce tops. And we
wanted to dress the tuning keys up, so I
think there’s ‘RS’ on all the tuning keys. He
said, what would I think about a fossilized
ivory bridge, and I said I thought it’d be
beautiful. I saw an old parlor guitar years
ago that had an old pickguard with some
silver wire in it, and it was just gorgeous,
but he told me about silver wire and how
hard it is to get in there. But also, as the
years go and these pickguards shrink and
expand, that wire gets loose and starts
to raise up, so it’s kind of hard on the
player. Then we talked and decided we’d
just do pearl inlay; that’ll just expand with
the pickguard. I think we came up with
something really pretty, and it’s not overdone, it’s not understated, and they’re
great-sounding guitars. It records so well.
And we just did ten of these guitars… I
think we only have maybe two or three
left to sell now. There’s nobody makes a
better dreadnought bluegrass acoustic
guitar than Dana Bourgeois. I just think
his sound, the playability of these guitars,
especially for bluegrass style, they’re just
great guitars for that.
RICKY’S GEARBOX
Acoustic Guitars:
PRS Tonare Grand
Bourgeois D150
Bourgeois Ricky Skaggs Limited
Edition Bourgeois OM
1931 Gibson L5 Archtop
1959 Martin D28
1942 Martin 000-21 Herringbone
1935 National Dobro Guitar
Electric Guitars:
1957 Fender Telecaster
Gretsch Country Gentleman
Danelectro 6-String Baritone
Amps:
Fender Dual Professional
Fender Twin
Fender Princeton
Lab Series L9
Effects:
MXR Flanger
EchoPlex
Roland Space Echo
