Bedell Bahia Dreadnought

Bedell Guitars introduce the new Bahia Dreadnought, featuring naturally cured half-century old Brazilian rosewood.

Bedell Bahia Series

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Acquiring Brazilian Rosewood is not an easy feat, but Bedell was able to get their hands on some of them from Spanish tonewood supplier Madinter, and are using them for this premium acoustic guitar.

The company provided an interesting back story for the rare rosewood that their using, stating that they all came from 50+ year old Brazilian rosewood logs that were shipped from NE Brazil to a small company that crafted church ornaments just outside of Madrid Spain.

These precious wood were stored safely in a warehouse, and soon found themselves cut for guitar manufacture use. These wood naturally aged year after year, and cured by the ideal climate of Spain. The company then became known as Madinter, and supplied tonewoods to many exclusive guitar builders. Bedell adds, “The sapcrystalized, the stress in the wood relaxed, the cellulose matured between the annual growth fiber, nature took its natural course of turning tone wood into incredible music wood. Just as pre-war guitars are known for their extraordinary sound as the tonewoods age, the Brazilian rosewood of Madinter cured naturally.

Now these same naturally aged Brazilian rosewood is going to be put to use on each Bedell Bahia Series, giving today’s players the chance to own a guitar with real vintage Brazilian Rosewood.

Even the guitar’s solid Sitka spruce top has an interesting backstory, it is said that they are crafted from planks salvaged from the forest floor near Craig Alaska. This is in keeping with the company’s goal to never use wood from clear-cut trees. The press release says, “The soundboards are over 400 years old, growing slowly as they compete for sun, water and freedom. The result is tight growth rings that give the tops of our instruments previously unheard power and clarity.”

It is also worth mentioning that the the company sands each top to a specific thickness and hand tune each one by carving away wood on each of the tone bars until a specified frequency is achieved. Bedell Guitars claim that unlike conventional guitars, tapping on the top of the Bahia Dreadnought will produce the same frequencies, regardless of where on the top you are tapping.

The neck is crafted from Honduran mahogany, with a nutwidth of 1.6875″ following traditional dreadnought builds. It has an ebony fingerboard that also matches the ebony bridge with bone nut and saddle. Other features include Waverly Tuners, Gloss Finish and Koa Binding.

The MAP for the new Bedell Bahia Dreadnought is $4,990, and the series also offers an Orchestra model and a smaller Parlor model. You can visit Bedell Guitars for further details.

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