When we visited Furch’s guitar-making facility near Brno in the Czech Republic a couple of years ago, we were struck by how unapologetically progressive the brand’s approach was.
When we asked if its guitars were all about handmade tradition, the company’s CEO Petr Furch smiled and cheerfully shook his head. Plenty of artisan-quality handwork goes into every Furch guitar, but Petr prefers robots to do the lutherie processes that require total precision and consistency – such as making the company’s innovative neck joints.
Therefore, he dismisses the idea that acoustic lutherie is a technological cul-de-sac fenced in by immovable tradition, and instead views it as an open road towards ever-improving playability and tone.
This spirit finds its highest expression in the Red Series guitars. Furch’s ranges are categorised by colour, with Red being the highest-quality guitars made by Furch outside of the company’s custom-order department.
The Deluxe tier within this series is, therefore, intended to be a bit special – and this guitar doesn’t disappoint.
Among many features unique to Furch, the most recent innovation that appears on this model is the Booster Soundport on the shoulder of the upper bout. Soundports are nothing new, of course, but Furch has designed its own to be an attractively understated array of slots, rather than a yawning hole in the side of the guitar.
Turning to fundamentals, the guitar’s body is made of Malaysian blackwood, which somewhat resembles a rich rosewood, while the soundboard is made of Alpine spruce.
Furch analyses and individually voices each of its soundboards for optimum resonance – a high-end process it performs even on its cheaper lines. But on this Red Series guitar the back is tuned, too, a further mark of its top-tier grade.
Furch is a very detail- and engineering-oriented maker, so even the Full-Pore High-Gloss Finish lacquer that clads this guitar was developed in-house to optimise volume and resonance.
The finely sculpted armrest on the top edge of the guitar’s body is complemented, unusually, by a belly cut on the rear – a doubly ergonomic feature that Furch has dubbed the Bevel Duo.
Ornamentation is also top-notch here, with koa binding and soundhole rosette, the latter with abalone inlay, plus a decorative koa wedge at the tail of the guitar.
Figured ziricote is used, meanwhile, for the bridge, fingerboard and headstock face. It adds up to a seriously elegant, feature-rich and capable instrument.
- The Red Deluxe GC-LI a 2026 is priced €6,265 ($7,169) approx. See Furch Guitars for more details.
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
