Furch MC Orange OMC

first play
FURCH MC BLUE GC-CM & MC ORANGE OMC-SR
18
Guitarist october 2019
initially his instruments were available
only to the home market. Over the ensuing
years the company grew in size and today
occupies a 16th-century mill complex in
Velké Neˇmcˇice in the Czech Republic,
employing 60 skilled workers, producing a
wide range of acoustic guitars.
Today, Furch offers its colour model lines
– Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo
and Violet – and the premium Rainbow
Series, which allows customers to order
their ideal instruments from 160 variable
features, including body size, tonewoods,
hardware and pickup systems.
The guitars we have in for review are both
from the MC – which stands for Master’s
Choice – range, one from Orange on the
model spectrum, the other Blue, and Furch
tells us that the former offers a “perfectly
balanced sound” while the latter is
“responsive, with deep lows”. Both benefit
from solid woods and represent different
ends of the Furch price range, the Blue
GC-CM (the letters stand for Grand
auditorium Cutaway, Cedar, Mahogany)
sitting around the £1k mark, while the
Orange OMC-SR (OM Cutaway, Spruce,
Rosewood) is just north of £2.5k. The two
models differ not only in price but choice
of tonewoods; the thing that unites them is
doubtlessly the spectacular build quality for
which Furch is rapidly becoming famous.
1. The MC Blue GC-CM
has an LR Baggs
Element pickup
system fitted with a
side-mounted preamp
with a built-in tuner and
plenty of EQ options
2. A fully compensated
Tusq saddle sits on top
of an ebony bridge
3. The mahogany back
and sides have a faux
tortoiseshell binding
Starting with the MC Blue GC-CM, the
first thing we notice is the weight – slightly
heavier than we’d expected – and the fact
that the finish here is matt satin, in complete
contrast to its high-gloss stablemate. Furch
has chosen a cedar and mahogany combo
for the body woods, the top being western
red cedar with African mahogany for the
back and sides. In the spec list it says the
grades of the woods here are AA, as opposed
to the more glamorous AAA on the Orange
OMC-SR. To be honest, you’d hardly be
aware of this if you hadn’t been told. The
grain of the cedar is tight and straight with
a light-ish reddy brown colour that will
darken with age. No complaints about the
mahogany, either, as everything looks in
order here, too. The binding back and front
of the body is faux tortoiseshell – matching
the instrument’s pickguard – and has been
expertly applied throughout, lending the
guitar a touch of subtle bling. The rosette
is a double ring of black walnut, again,
superbly administered, and a peek inside the
soundbox reveals the level of craftsmanship
is maintained under the hood.
The GC-CM’s neck continues the
mahogany theme, being essentially a
one-piece affair – no visible scarf joints
hereabouts – with a separate piece of wood
for the heel, which itself has been capped
with a piece of ebony.
The thing that
unites the models
is the spectacular
build quality for
which Furch is
becoming famous
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VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT451.rev_furch.indd 18 05/09/2019 15:53