Guitar company collaborates with UMaine to create high-end acoustic instruments

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

November 17, 2015 Economic Development

Transcript

I’m John Karp and I’m the President of Bourgeois Acoustic Guitars. We’re based out of Lewiston, Maine and we also have a facility in Brunswick, Maine at TechPlace.

We’ve been in the business about 15 years under the current management structure. Dana Bourgeois has been making guitars for 40 years and our guitars have been played extensively in the bluegrass world by names such as Ricky Skaggs and Doc Watson and many others.

Now we’re really branching out with a lot of rock acts, and we’re basically going worldwide into many different markets. We do use the Maine woods in our guitars, our top, some of them come from the north woods of Maine.

I’ve actually been involved with the University of Maine with Innovation Engineering, and actually a lot of the things we’re doing now that are very successful are based on the use of Innovation Engineering.

We’ve developed a torrefied technology for our wood and it ages the wood of our guitars and makes them much more like vintage guitars which is the holy grail of sound in the acoustic guitar world.

The wood science department was very instrumental in helping us evaluate torrefied wood for use in guitars, they guided us in the mechanical engineering aspects of doing durability tests, both mechanical and thermal and that kind of guidance was critical.

We’ve had two Innovate for Maine Fellows with us and they’ve helped us extensively in online research on all sorts of different marketing efforts up to and including a display on an antique Chevy pickup truck that has different types of guitar necks that we make in the back for a show truck. It’s fun, yeah.

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