Century-old Virgin Redwood
In 1851, Harry Meiggs, founder of San Francsico's Fisherman's Wharf, set up a sawmill at the mouth of the Big River in Mendocino, California, positioned among the redwood forests there. Dams popped up all along Big River and the logging business boomed for the next 30 years. The dams caught the logs until enough rainwater fell to float them off to Meiggs' sawmill. Many of the best, older cut logs (some 16 feet in diameter) sank to the bottom and were buried there.

One hundred years later, bridge builders were drilling in the river bed for new footings and each time their drilling equipment surfaced they noticed the presence of wood shavings. Word spread, and enterprising wood lovers deduced what treasures likely lurked in the murky waters of Big River. Using only a skiff, a winch and their own strength and ingenuity, they dredged the river and began to bring up these huge logs from as deep as 38 feet. These 'pumpkins,' as the men called them, featured marks from ax hewing, which effectively dated the logs to the late 1800's, before the Raker Tooth Saw had been invented. A small percentage of this wood also had an exquisite curly figure--highly desirable to furniture and instrument makers. This rare and beautiful wood also happens to be an excellent tonewood for guitars. Petros Guitars has procured a small amount of this wood, and has carefully extracted the best parts for fine musical instruments. The redwood tops must be perfectly quarter sawn with tight grain (which produces much wasted material), but what little yield they have is excellent and a select soundboard for this guitar is part of this limited edition, African Rose, by Petros Guitars. This particular guitar is being offered exclusively by Fine Guitar Consultants.

African Rosewood (Guibourtia tessmannii)
This is another rare find. Also known as Akume, BingBinga, Bubinga, Essingang, Kevazingo, Ovang and Waka, this wood comes from a medium to large tree found in the forests of West Africa, mainly Cameroon and Gabon. The heartwood is pinkish-red to brownish-red with a fine purplish striping. The grain is usually straight and interlocked but in some logs the grain is very irregular, producing highly figured stock. It is extremely stable and has an excellent tap-tone to rival the best traditional tonewoods. The wood from this particular tree yielded the most striking and elegant figure that Bruce Petros had ever seen. It has a deep, even, and consistent curl that is remarkable to behold.
To quote Bruce and Matt Petros, the makers of this guitar, "When a luthier discovers a piece of wood that is unbelievably beautiful, something that may happen only once in a lifetime, there is an irrepressable urge to build an extraordinary instrument and is compelled to put his whole soul into this instrument. If, perchance, her were to discover an equally amazing gem for the top too, well, this is an unprecedented event.The marriage of these rare African and American woods in a Petros guitar creates an instrument of unsurpassed beauty and rarity that will stand out like a beacon in a sea of ordinary instruments." All we can add to that at here at FGC--is that even though none of our instruments are 'ordinary,' this African Rose Bushongo Grand Concert Cutaway Limited Edition Number 1 of 3 is an outstanding example of a fine hand made instrument.

$22,500

Fine Guitar Consultants tel (619) 265-5900 fax 619 265-2527 email: rglick@FineGuitarConsultants.com