Century Old Virgin Redwood In 1851, Harry Meiggs, (founder of San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf), set up a sawmill at the mouth of the Big River in Mendocino, California – capitalizing on the dense redwood forests there. Dams popped up all along the 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 Meigg’s sawmill at the mouth of the river. Many of the best, older cut logs (some 16 feet in diameter!) sank to the bottom of the river where they got stuck and were buried.

One hundred years later, bridge builders were drilling in the riverbed for new footings and each time their equipment surfaced they noticed the presence of wood shavings. Word spread, and enterprising wood aficionados deduced what treasures were hidden in the murky waters of the 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 depths of up to 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 producing much waste, but what they have gleaned is exceedingly excellent and will be used in limited edition instruments.

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 lumber. Common figures are pomelle, ribbon-stripe, quilted, cat’s-eye, and in rare instances a combination of these figures is found in the same log. The heartwood is fairly hard and heavy with a dried weight of 50-58 lbs. per cubic foot. It is extremely stable and has an excellent tap tone to rival any of the best, traditional tonewoods. This particular tree yielded the most striking and elegant figure we have ever seen. It has a deep, even and consistent curl that is remarkable to behold.

When a luthier discovers a piece of wood that is unbelievably beautiful, something that may happen only once in a lifetime, there is an irrepressible urge to build an extraordinary instrument and is compelled to put his whole soul into this instrument.   If, perchance, he 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.

A very limited number of these distinguished guitars will be made due to the rarity and limited supply of these exquisite woods.

Not only is this guitar visually stunning, it is the best sounding guitar I have ever heard, anywhere, period. —Jim Cole

The African Rose Bushongo
A Limited Edition of three guitars built with rare, exotic tonewoods.
See more of the first of three African Rose Bushongo Grand Concert guitars on the gallery page.

The African Rose Bushongo - $22500
Top: Century-old curly redwood.
Back & Sides: Rare, exotic tiger-striped African rosewood.
Binding & handmade tuner buttons of Brazilian boxwood. Trimmed top and back with select Paua abalone, fitted with fossilized walrus ivory nut, saddle and bridge pins. Bridge and fingerboard of African ebony.

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