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Bedell Wildfire Orchestra

Bedell Guitars expand their Homegrown Collection with the new Wildfire Orchestra, handcrafted using all American-grown tonewoods.

Bedell Wildfire Orchestra

This guitar is part of the company’s new Wildfire Series, which also include a Dreadnought and Parlor model. Staying true to its name, the guitars in this series are wrapped in a fireburst gloss finish.

The most noteworthy feature of the Bedell Wildfire Orchestra is its use of native US grown tonewoods. It features a solid Adirondack spruce top supported by figured bigleaf maple for the back and sides, both of which are sourced locally much and hand built in their facility.

While using native wood were normal in past, it is now a rare practice especially in light of resource scarcity and the race to production cost reduction. In light of this, the effort of going the local and natural route must have been a rough ride for the company, yet they continue to find ways to get their premium raw materials from within the US – hopefully from renewable sources because they mentioned that Bedell instruments never use clear-cut trees as source materials.. As expected, these homegrown and handcrafted guitars come with a premium price tag.

The official description says, “The Bedell Wildfire Series is the most soulful, native series of instruments Bedell crafts. The beauty of the flamed bigleaf maple and the power of sturdy Adirondack spruce are accentuated by exquisite appointments and a breathtaking Fire Burst gloss finish. As much a visual art piece as a musical instrument, your Bedell Wildfire instrument won’t be adorning your walls, but rather coming to life in your hands with every note you play.

Since premium tonewoods don’t just evolve into great sounding guitars, Bedell craftsmen have to carefully hand-tune the solid Adirondack top and custom build tone bars to ensure that it resonates well. They also expertly craft bigleaf maple to form the guitar’s back and sides, and maintain the tone balance consistency between each guitar. As the name implies, the body comes with a traditional orchestra shape, which is known for its clarity and nuance reproduction.

The neck is crafted from Eastern hard rock maple which is then topped by a walnut fretboard. It has a 1 11/16″ nut width and features detailed mosaic pin inlays. The bridge is also crafted from walnut to match the fretboard, while both the saddle and nut are made from Tusq. The figured maple peghead veneer matches the elegantly figured bigleaf maple body.

Other features of this guitar include maple binding, Waverly #4060-G gold tuners and it even comes with built-in electronics from K&K. The addition of the K&K Pure Mini preamp and pickup system ensures that this museum piece looking instrument is road and gig worthy. According to Bedell, each Wildfire instrument has a “livelines that simply must be experienced.”

The Wildfire Orchestra is now available through their dealers, with a retail price of $3,990. For more information and other details, head over to Bedell Guitars.

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