Jeffrey Yong Guitars JJSW-23 Custom THE TREE Mosaic
For your consideration, we present one of the rarest acoustic guitars that KHG has ever seen. Jay Howlett, one of the world's foremost dealers of highly-coveted wood from THE TREE, has decided to let this rare build out into the wild.
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about THE TREE, from Stewmac.com:
To understand The Tree's history we have to go back to 1965, when Belize was British Honduras...
Deep in the rainforest jungle of Chiquibul, a small party of loggers happened upon a towering mahogany. At over 100 feet high and 10 feet in diameter at the base, this tree was massive in every sense of the word. Best estimates would later place it at approximately 500 years old.
While felling an average sized tree can prove to be a formidable task—felling a tree wider than a bus must have required a great deal of bravery, a great deal of insanity, or an equal measure of both.
Whatever their state of mind at the time, the loggers vowed to complete their quest.
According to legend, and armed with nothing but their axes, the loggers began the long and arduous operation of chipping away at the base of The Tree. Fragment by fragment. Inch by inch. Weeks of manual labor in the sweltering, humid climate would have been required to prepare this tree for felling.
Then, finally, The Tree was ready to fall. The loggers' many years of experience had prepared them for this moment. With everything in order, the team was ready for the giant to come tumbling down.
It is at this point in the story, when the story and The Tree take an unexpected turn.
Instead of landing where intended, The Tree fell backward, coming to a rest at the bottom of a ravine—now impossible for the loggers to extract with their limited machinery.
An unfortunate twist of fate for this small team of loggers, this accident would, nevertheless, prove fortuitous for The Tree. With the unanticipated reverse dive delaying its departure from Honduras (now Belize), The Tree would later make a much grander entrance onto the world stage.
However, for the next 10 years, The Tree would call the forest floor its home.
Rediscovery of The Tree
Fast forward to the late '70s. Sawmill owner Alan Mauney stumbles upon The Tree in his search for timber, and subsequently mentions it to Robert Novak, an American specializing in the import of rosewood and other specialty woods.
For The Tree, this was two pieces of luck wrapped up into one. Novak happened to be in the region at the time, and had he not been there, it is likely The Tree never would have found its path out of Belize.
It is possible that it would have spent the rest of its days lying in the ravine—its incredible beauty never to be seen by the human eye and its untapped potential squandered away through a slow and unrelenting progression of rot and decay.
Fortunately, The Tree was to have a fate much more glamorous.
Although flooding prevented the two from visiting The Tree for a month, upon first sight Novak "recognized its significance almost immediately". His experience with other figured hardwoods led him to believe this specific tree could be quite unique. At the time, he would have had no idea just how unique The Tree truly was.
Novak purchased The Tree and then set about creating a plan to extract it from the ravine. Unforgiving terrain, The Tree's enormous weight, and wet conditions were just a few of the obstacles he had to overcome.
The decision was made to cut The Tree into quarters where it sat and then to cut those quarters to length. This would make hauling the timber out of the ravine a much more manageable ordeal.
They dragged the timber out of the ravine using a large tractor and placed them on trucks, three heavy sections at a time. The wood was then transported a perilous 100 miles through the heart of the jungle to the Chiquibul river.
Once at the river, the logs had to be floated a final 70 miles downstream to an old, steam-powered sawmill.
Novak supervised all of the processing, and was finally able to confirm his suspicions. This was certainly no ordinary tree. It had figure unlike anything he had ever seen. It was full of deep color, rich, swirling patterns, and it was also unusually dense.
To this day, Novak claims The Tree is some of the "prettiest wood he's ever seen". He is far from alone in that opinion.
The milling operation required nearly two weeks of work, yielding an astonishing 12,000 board feet of timber. The wood was then shipped to the United States and kiln dried for 30 days.
To the guitar building community, this tree would not become known as The Tree for another 10-15 years.
The Tree's figure (commonly called quilted, blistered, or tortoise shell) is thought to be caused by a genetic defect. In truth, the reason for its dramatic appearance remains largely a mystery.
While the cause of its beauty may be open for debate, the fact that it is beautiful certainly is not.
The look of The Tree is totally and utterly breathtaking—unbelievable depth of color often coupled with a large, undulating pattern of glistening waves and spider webbing.
"The Tree's dramatic figuring is classified in three main categories. One pattern resembles a tortoise shell, its triangular shapes having dark veiny outlines. Another is often referred to as a sausage quilt, as its wide horizontal patterns bear a resemblance to [sausage links], with rolling vertical lines that look like long, wavy tendrils. The third type of figuring is blistered, which, with its illusion of irregular curly shapes, is the wildest variation. While all three varieties are dazzling, the tortoise-shell pattern is most wildly coveted…" - Adam Perlmutter
The tone of The Tree is unlike any other wood available. The Tree's density, response, and headroom rival that of the best Brazilian rosewood, and it has an open, ringing quality at first strum.
To date there have been no other trees found that compare to The Tree—in look and in tone, it truly is one of a kind.
-----
The story on this guitar goes that world-renown Malaysian luthier Jeffrey Yong purchased wood from Jay Howlett's stash of The Tree. In trade for the wood, Jeffrey presented Jay with this custom guitar.
Thought the sides and top are where most of the action is at, lets start with the top. A heavily-bear-clawed is featured and is bedecked in binding, a multi-layer exotic wood/abalone purfling, and THE TREE/abalone/multi-layer exotic wood rosette. Dramatic ebony contours bring comfort and contrasting style to the elbow area and to the cutaway.
The back and sides and interior of this guitar are nothing short of a masterpiece. The base of of the body is comprised of a bananawood/mahogany/bananawood laminate, atop which was assembled a hypnotizing mosaic of Quilted Mahogany from THE TREE. Each square is outlined in strips of flamed maple and the result is a composition that is sure to make jaws drop. The treble side upper bout bears a soundport, through which the internal Cathedral-like beauty of this instrument can be appreciated, as the back bracing is comprised of the same wood combination as the body base and each brace is drilled-out a-la-aircraft-aluminum for weight relief and as an aesthetic "flex".
The neck is a 7-piece multi-ply construction of Mahogany, Maple, and Walnut, with headstock capped on the front with Ebony and reverse with rosewood, and a fretboard of Ebony bearing an Art-Deco inspired wood inlay on the 8th fret position and beyond. Yong finished this guitar off with gold fretwire with zero fret, ebony bridge with brass bridgepins, and gold open-gear tuners with contrasting ebony buttons.
Bring the exotic wood extravaganza to your acoustic collection with this handcrafted icon from Jeffrey Yong.
This guitar is in excellent-to-Near-Mint condition, showing signs of light use and careful storage. There are minor scuffs on the treble side top binding. There is a small scuff on the reverse face of the headstock. This package is complete with the original faux-reptile hard case.
Bearclaw Spruce Top
THE TREE & Flamed Maple Mosaic
Bananawood/Mahogany/Bananawood Back & Sides
3-Ply Weight-Relieved Bracing
7-Piece Mahogany/Maple/Walnut Neck
Ebony Headstock Face Overlay
Rosewood Reverse Headstock Overlay
Bound Ebony Fingerboard with Gold Fretwire
Art-Deco Inlay
Ebony Asymmetrical Bridge with Brass Pins
Ebony Cutaway & Elbow Contour
Soundport on Upper Bass Bout
Multi-Layer Abalone & Exotic Wood Purfling & Rosette
25.5" Scale
7.25" Radius
1 3/4" Nut Width
USED
$15,999
SALE PENDING
-----
about THE TREE, from Stewmac.com:
To understand The Tree's history we have to go back to 1965, when Belize was British Honduras...
Deep in the rainforest jungle of Chiquibul, a small party of loggers happened upon a towering mahogany. At over 100 feet high and 10 feet in diameter at the base, this tree was massive in every sense of the word. Best estimates would later place it at approximately 500 years old.
While felling an average sized tree can prove to be a formidable task—felling a tree wider than a bus must have required a great deal of bravery, a great deal of insanity, or an equal measure of both.
Whatever their state of mind at the time, the loggers vowed to complete their quest.
According to legend, and armed with nothing but their axes, the loggers began the long and arduous operation of chipping away at the base of The Tree. Fragment by fragment. Inch by inch. Weeks of manual labor in the sweltering, humid climate would have been required to prepare this tree for felling.
Then, finally, The Tree was ready to fall. The loggers' many years of experience had prepared them for this moment. With everything in order, the team was ready for the giant to come tumbling down.
It is at this point in the story, when the story and The Tree take an unexpected turn.
Instead of landing where intended, The Tree fell backward, coming to a rest at the bottom of a ravine—now impossible for the loggers to extract with their limited machinery.
An unfortunate twist of fate for this small team of loggers, this accident would, nevertheless, prove fortuitous for The Tree. With the unanticipated reverse dive delaying its departure from Honduras (now Belize), The Tree would later make a much grander entrance onto the world stage.
However, for the next 10 years, The Tree would call the forest floor its home.
Rediscovery of The Tree
Fast forward to the late '70s. Sawmill owner Alan Mauney stumbles upon The Tree in his search for timber, and subsequently mentions it to Robert Novak, an American specializing in the import of rosewood and other specialty woods.
For The Tree, this was two pieces of luck wrapped up into one. Novak happened to be in the region at the time, and had he not been there, it is likely The Tree never would have found its path out of Belize.
It is possible that it would have spent the rest of its days lying in the ravine—its incredible beauty never to be seen by the human eye and its untapped potential squandered away through a slow and unrelenting progression of rot and decay.
Fortunately, The Tree was to have a fate much more glamorous.
Although flooding prevented the two from visiting The Tree for a month, upon first sight Novak "recognized its significance almost immediately". His experience with other figured hardwoods led him to believe this specific tree could be quite unique. At the time, he would have had no idea just how unique The Tree truly was.
Novak purchased The Tree and then set about creating a plan to extract it from the ravine. Unforgiving terrain, The Tree's enormous weight, and wet conditions were just a few of the obstacles he had to overcome.
The decision was made to cut The Tree into quarters where it sat and then to cut those quarters to length. This would make hauling the timber out of the ravine a much more manageable ordeal.
They dragged the timber out of the ravine using a large tractor and placed them on trucks, three heavy sections at a time. The wood was then transported a perilous 100 miles through the heart of the jungle to the Chiquibul river.
Once at the river, the logs had to be floated a final 70 miles downstream to an old, steam-powered sawmill.
Novak supervised all of the processing, and was finally able to confirm his suspicions. This was certainly no ordinary tree. It had figure unlike anything he had ever seen. It was full of deep color, rich, swirling patterns, and it was also unusually dense.
To this day, Novak claims The Tree is some of the "prettiest wood he's ever seen". He is far from alone in that opinion.
The milling operation required nearly two weeks of work, yielding an astonishing 12,000 board feet of timber. The wood was then shipped to the United States and kiln dried for 30 days.
To the guitar building community, this tree would not become known as The Tree for another 10-15 years.
The Tree's figure (commonly called quilted, blistered, or tortoise shell) is thought to be caused by a genetic defect. In truth, the reason for its dramatic appearance remains largely a mystery.
While the cause of its beauty may be open for debate, the fact that it is beautiful certainly is not.
The look of The Tree is totally and utterly breathtaking—unbelievable depth of color often coupled with a large, undulating pattern of glistening waves and spider webbing.
"The Tree's dramatic figuring is classified in three main categories. One pattern resembles a tortoise shell, its triangular shapes having dark veiny outlines. Another is often referred to as a sausage quilt, as its wide horizontal patterns bear a resemblance to [sausage links], with rolling vertical lines that look like long, wavy tendrils. The third type of figuring is blistered, which, with its illusion of irregular curly shapes, is the wildest variation. While all three varieties are dazzling, the tortoise-shell pattern is most wildly coveted…" - Adam Perlmutter
The tone of The Tree is unlike any other wood available. The Tree's density, response, and headroom rival that of the best Brazilian rosewood, and it has an open, ringing quality at first strum.
To date there have been no other trees found that compare to The Tree—in look and in tone, it truly is one of a kind.
-----
The story on this guitar goes that world-renown Malaysian luthier Jeffrey Yong purchased wood from Jay Howlett's stash of The Tree. In trade for the wood, Jeffrey presented Jay with this custom guitar.
Thought the sides and top are where most of the action is at, lets start with the top. A heavily-bear-clawed is featured and is bedecked in binding, a multi-layer exotic wood/abalone purfling, and THE TREE/abalone/multi-layer exotic wood rosette. Dramatic ebony contours bring comfort and contrasting style to the elbow area and to the cutaway.
The back and sides and interior of this guitar are nothing short of a masterpiece. The base of of the body is comprised of a bananawood/mahogany/bananawood laminate, atop which was assembled a hypnotizing mosaic of Quilted Mahogany from THE TREE. Each square is outlined in strips of flamed maple and the result is a composition that is sure to make jaws drop. The treble side upper bout bears a soundport, through which the internal Cathedral-like beauty of this instrument can be appreciated, as the back bracing is comprised of the same wood combination as the body base and each brace is drilled-out a-la-aircraft-aluminum for weight relief and as an aesthetic "flex".
The neck is a 7-piece multi-ply construction of Mahogany, Maple, and Walnut, with headstock capped on the front with Ebony and reverse with rosewood, and a fretboard of Ebony bearing an Art-Deco inspired wood inlay on the 8th fret position and beyond. Yong finished this guitar off with gold fretwire with zero fret, ebony bridge with brass bridgepins, and gold open-gear tuners with contrasting ebony buttons.
Bring the exotic wood extravaganza to your acoustic collection with this handcrafted icon from Jeffrey Yong.
This guitar is in excellent-to-Near-Mint condition, showing signs of light use and careful storage. There are minor scuffs on the treble side top binding. There is a small scuff on the reverse face of the headstock. This package is complete with the original faux-reptile hard case.
Bearclaw Spruce Top
THE TREE & Flamed Maple Mosaic
Bananawood/Mahogany/Bananawood Back & Sides
3-Ply Weight-Relieved Bracing
7-Piece Mahogany/Maple/Walnut Neck
Ebony Headstock Face Overlay
Rosewood Reverse Headstock Overlay
Bound Ebony Fingerboard with Gold Fretwire
Art-Deco Inlay
Ebony Asymmetrical Bridge with Brass Pins
Ebony Cutaway & Elbow Contour
Soundport on Upper Bass Bout
Multi-Layer Abalone & Exotic Wood Purfling & Rosette
25.5" Scale
7.25" Radius
1 3/4" Nut Width
USED
$15,999
SALE PENDING