The Gold Rush

Signature Series Nightingale, Brazilian
 and Submersion Redwood

$30,000
Sold

Several months ago I was given a rare and wonderful redwood top by my good friend and great guitarmaker Peter Marreiros. This soundboard is one of those soundboards that came from a log that dates from the great logging days of early California. Salvaged from the bottom of a cold logging river after more than a hundred years of submersion in the high country, these rare and lovely soundboards are light and stiff and have phenomenal tone and presence. And some of them display dark coloration from immersion in those nutrient- and mineral-rich waters. Usually the coloration shows up as contrasting patches of light and darker vertical stripes. But this rare top exhibited the most lovely, chocolaty and coffee-brown color throughout. In addition, its tone was seductive and rich.

Having this top in hand, we decided it needed to have a unique guitar built around it. So we chose a dark set of master-grade, old-growth Brazilian that was the perfect complement acoustically and visually to this unique top. And then breaking new ground in inlay design, we inlaid our Full Deco Fretboard Vine completely in Gold Oyster, the loveliest gold and bronze-hued pearl. We also inlaid the Deco Rosette, headstock, bridge perimeter, bridge wings, truss rod cover and, of course, all the edges (soundboard, fretboard, headstock, back and sides) with this pearl. The result was—well, I will let you judge the result—but let me say that we are over the moon with the sound and aesthetics of this Nightingale.

This instrument features the Ryan Bevel, Bevel Flutes, our EO bracing and A4 kerfing, our fingerstyle scale (25.7”) a Florentine cutaway, ebony binding, oxbone nut and saddle, super 510 machines and a Deluxe Calton Flight Case.  

The Gold Rush Nightingale also debuts my new, plasma-coated, custom-designed Titanium bridge pins with Gold Oyster inlaid dots. These new Titanium pins are the result of collaboration with Tisonix.

I have named this instrument The Gold Rush. It is a tip-of-the-hat to the romance of the California Gold Rush and Logging Era, the Gold Pearl of the inlays and of course the subliminal “rush” of exhilaration this instrument elicits.