Furch Red Plus SR DC – Acoustic Review

Furch’s top of the range Red Plus is a bit of a dark horse, as Ben Morgan-Brown finds out

Built in the Czech Republic, Furch Guitars have had a slightly complicated history in some English speaking countries. For a while they were known as Stonebridge and began to build a great reputation for themselves before deciding to re-brand under the name they have been known in their home country and some others, Furch, which has to some extent meant them starting again in terms of player recognition.

The name change hasn’t been helped by the fact that, at least in the UK, they are not the easiest guitars to find. If you want to try one you may have to hunt around to find a stockist. Would it be worth it? Well, as Ben Morgan-Brown found out, the answer is a resounding yes. This is an absolutely cracking guitar!

Furch’s Red Plus series sits at the top of the Furch range and offers a wide choice of body styles. We were sent a cutaway Dreadnought example for our review and while it’s not an inexpensive guitar, it punches above its weight against the traditional US ‘big name’ rivals with which it competes head on in terms of materials, build quality, and, most importantly, sound.

With a modern and restrained look, the cutaway Dreadnought Red Plus SR is made of excellent materials including a master grade Sitka spruce top and super quality Indian Rosewood for the back and sides. These excellent tonewoods have been chosen and assembled with obvious care and the guitar features some very nice touches, like an internal label made from wood, rather than the traditional paper, the use of superb Gotoh tuners, a Hiscox case included in the price and a koa rosette, binding and position markers. The bridge, fingerboard and headstock overlay, meanwhile, are made from Central American ziricote. This is a professional class guitar and it certainly looks it!

Constructionally, the Furch features the maker’s unique CNR dual-action truss which allows for fine adjustments of the neck relief in both directions. The truss rod is installed in a carbon casing filled with silicone to prevent undesirable vibrations and to ensure a smooth action, the maker says.

Our Furch played as well as it looked, with an easy action and a slightly slim neck. Where some Dreadnoughts can be boomy, or with a few too many overtones, Ben found the Red Plus pure, bright and versatile, suited to both fingerstyle and strumming, making it a good all-rounder that a player could use under any circumstances, knowing it would perform well,.Options include a range of high quality L.R. Baggs pickups but ours came as a plain acoustic version.

Priced at less than a comparable quality US-made guitar, the Furch Red Plus SR is offered in a wide rage of body shapes and sizes, so there is going to be a size and style to suit more or less everyone. Even if it means a bit of travelling to find one, if you are in the market for a professional quality guitar at a good price and with these looks and sound (check out our review using good headphones!) we would strongly suggest it’s an effort worth making.

Check the video review here.

Author: Ben Morgan-Brown