A trip to Guitar Gallery

[B0WIE]

The left side of that scale appeals to me probably because I have a heavy picking hand (thumbpick and bare fingers), heavier than most fingerstyle players as I've discovered. I love percussive, hard driving, at times funky blues. That surely plays a part. And to add to the answer you gave William, yes, the 12-fret Collings guitars I own have incredible sustain. I would never call them over-built (not that anyone did), just a little more heavier-built than a Santa Cruz or FB.

That makes sense. And, yes, definitely heavier. You pick up a Collings and you can just feel when it goes into motion it's going to keep ringing. It's not just the weight, when handling them you can hear the thing talking as the resonance it very apparent. My "keeper" Collings is also a 12-fret. Since you're a 12-fret Collings fan, I'll share the story of this one. I had found out that John Griffin of Old Standard Wood (the company that supplies some of the best Adi spruce to Martin, Collings, etc) had done a run where they took the very best tops they had been saving (out of many thousands) and had Collings make a few "Old Standard Wood" editions. I wanted one, badly, but John said they had long sold out and weren't making new ones. After chatting a bit about woods I think he may have appreciated my enthusiasm because said, "Well... I do have the shop guitar." Apparently, he kept one SD12 to showcase the company for visitors, and to feature on their website because it had as perfect a top as you can get with adi. I sold my two best guitars and bought it. Being a guitar nerd, I had to ask about the wood and he graciously told me the story about the morning he found that old magnificent log buried in the snow.
Though it's mahogany, it's far warmer than any rosewood guitar I've ever played, much warmer than my braz rosewood Bourgeois. My light playing doesn't do it justice and I actually decided to sell it a few months ago when I was going through a hand injury but, when my friend was trying it out before buying, I fell back in love with it. He owns vintage D28s and 35's and was baffled at how my Collings sounded better than his old Martins. It's as deep-throated as a dragon, and you can tune it down to C and it still sings. This might sound like I'm just bragging but I'm not like that and I don't think of guitars as an extension of my personality. I just feel lucky to have access to some special instruments. I got them from trading up over the years and doing a lot of fixing and flipping. I don't make the kind of money to afford guitars like this.

For fingerstyle, what was your favorite Bourgeois model(s), Bowie?

The only Bourgeois that really spoke to me is my SD12, adi/braz. For a big guitar, it's quite articulate. Has a little bit of that traditional bounce and drive you get from a Froggy, but it is it's own thing. The other Bourgeois I've tried have been impressive, but never really spoke to me as something I wanted to have. I think I like guitars that do one thing really well rather than the jacks of all trades. I love character and quirk. It's ok that one thing isn't perfect because it does this other thing that's simply amazing.

I've often thought that sustain and response seemed to move in opposite directions. We tend to want it ALL in one guitar, but the physics sure don't make things easy for the builder (or the player). 

That's one of those things that took me a long time to accept. One instrument can't do everything better than every other guitar. People have this need to put everything on a scale of good to bad and it makes learning (and shopping) online very confusing. People post reviews and describe their guitar as both warm AND bright, sustaining AND dynamic, etc. Things that conflict with each other. In my audio parts business, the #1 thing I try to get across to people is that music doesn't sit on a scale of good to bad so components don't either. We're all doing different things in different ways and we just need to find the tools that help us make the sound we have in our heads.