A first-of-its-kind from Santa Cruz Guitar Company, This custom Firefly pairs rare premium Brazilian Rosewood back and sides, considered the Holy Grail of tonewood with 200+ year old Fort Ross ‘Chapel’ Redwood reclaimed from the 19th century chapel at Fort Ross located on the California coast. A centerpiece of the 2023 NAMM Show collection for Santa Cruz this April, the custom Firefly boasts extra features like the Blue Paua Pearl 41-style top trim rosette and snowflake bridge inlays, Brazilian Rosewood fretboard and bridge, full Ivoroid bindings, Blue Paua Pearl backstrip and end strip and more to set it apart from the rest. A premium master craft build, this comfortable lap guitar is a true heirloom quality guitar.
Measuring 13″ across at the lower bout and a body depth of 4 3/16″, this is one of the smaller builds for Santa Cruz. Do not let the size of this guitar fool you though. As the saying goes, dynamite comes in small packages. This is one of the most premium custom Firefly models Santa Cruz has built. The Firely is an amazing design to begin with, but with these extremely rare tone woods, it just completely puts it over the top.
The body is premium Brazilian Rosewood with a silky mesmerizing figuring. Considered the ‘holy grail’ of tone woods- highly sought after for centuries from the forests of Brazil. Heralded for it’s density to weight ratio, Brazilian Rosewood is the perfect tone wood for volume, warmth and clarity. Paired with the old growth Fort Ross Chapel Redwood, this is a master crafted build- a pinnacle of construction, tone, and art.
Other features include Brazilian Rosewood fretboard and bridge, Adirondack Spruce bracing, Hide Glue construction, custom buffed Mahogany neck, Blue Paua Pearl logo, Ebony fretboard, bridge and overlay, Gotoh 510 Nickel tuners, 24″ short scale and much more.
About Fort Ross Redwood
Fort Ross was established in 1812 by fur trappers on the West Coast of what would become California, near what is now Bodega Bay in Sonoma County. The Chapel was built circa 1824, entirely of old growth Redwood planks with mortise and tenon joints. The Fort Ross Chapel was found eligible for designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1969, architecturally significant as a rare U.S. example of a log church constructed on a Russian quadrilateral plan. An accidental fire destroyed the chapel on October 5, 1970 and during the reconstruction that ensued, a few of these beams that were burned and removed were found to have vertical grain, suitable for instrument building.
Fast forward 50 years and these precious few beams were acquired by Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz Guitars and and just recently have been milled to premium guitar tops. Richard’s assessment is the processed lumber is 200 years old and based upon the thickness of the beams, their width and length, tightness and shape of the annual rings that the original trees to be quite massive and possibly thousands of years old.
Includes deluxe Ameritage hardshell case and Lifetime Warranty.
Free shipping in the continental United States.
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