Custom Ornamental Guitar – California
Jay Bonner commissioned a highly ornamental custom steel string made by Santa Cruz Guitar Company in Santa Cruz, California. The headstock and fingerboard are inlaid in mother of pearl in the same floral style that Jay Bonner developed for the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The soundboard for the guitar is made from specially selected and aged Moroccan cedar from the Atlas Mountains. This wood was leftover stock from the construction of the Sliding Domes project for the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. In former times, this variety of wood was used for the soundboards of harpsichords, and it is used for the soundboards of ouds in Morocco to this day. However, this is very likely the first time this premium wood has been used for a guitar soundboard. The sound of the guitar is exceptional. The back and sides are made from very rare quilted mahogany from “the tree;” a famous windfall specimen from Belize. Custom Pearl Inlay in New York did the mother of pearl inlay, and the guitar was commissioned through Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, California.
Completed in 2008.