Bourgeois Guitars Introduces the Whyte Rabbit & Other New Models: Winter NAMM 2017

By Greg Cahill

Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks asked Lewiston, Maine, luthier Dana Bourgeois for a special guitar to be used on the country band’s recent “MMXVI” tour. The result was the White Lady, a spectral-finished LDBO (a version of a classic L-00).

This year, Bourgeois introduced the production model of that custom axe: the Whyte Rabbit (just in time for the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love), with Adirondack top and curly maple back and sides.

Other models introduced at Winter NAMM 2017 include a D-45-style dread with pearl inlay galore and Brazilian rosewood back and sides; and “The Soloist,” a 30th-anniversary cutaway OM that commemorates the collaboration between Bourgeois and Northern California guitar-designer Eric Schoenberg (the duo helped to popularize the small-body OM 30 years ago).

Also new at Winter NAMM was the Standard Line, featuring an LDBO, a small jumbo, and a slope-shouldered dreadnought.

Other new models include a Tony Rice-inspired large soundhole OM, a small-body guitar with the voice of a dread; a jumbo OM cutaway with Brazilian back and sides; and a small-body Style 0.