Scarlet Fire Guitars Rosebud Prototype Jerry Garcia Doug Irwin Alembic Tiger Style guitar body project Grateful Dead Cocobolo

For sale is a special guitar body.
This is a Prototype (possibly the first) Rosebud body Leo Elliot of Scarlet Fire Guitars made.
I purchased this from Leo a number of years ago with the intention of fully building it up.
A number of unfortunate circumstances caused this project to never come together.
I believe someone out there will be able to help finish this awesome guitar and end up with a beautiful and playable work of art.

Once you get it ready for a finish, the wood grain will pop dramatically and reveal just how amazing the grain and figuring truly are.

Fully hollow just like Jerry’s original made by the legendary Doug Irwin.
(Leo has since actually become friends with Doug, and even became the official builder of Dougs Guitars.)
Meticulously hand carved Beautiful Cocobolo top and back.
Full authentic “Hippy Sandwich” construction.
Even being fully hollow, this guitar has some “heft” to it.

Unlike other replicas, this guitar has authentic multiple layers to the body and is fully hollow and fully curved front and back.
No other replicas go that far or are even remotely this accurate.
Pictures absolutely do not do justice to how beautiful the craftsmanship is and the wood choices are.

While carving out this prototype, Leo encountered a spot that ended up being a bit thin and it created a small hole in the back lower horn area.
This is all a part of the learning process of the tolerances when dealing with a carved top/back on a hollow instrument.
Another area worth noting is a crack on the back upper horn/mid area.
This was a result of the body being moved around and stored in Leo’s shop for a few years before I acquired it.
Both of these areas would be easy to patch/stabilize.
Last, Leo had experimented with a finish on this guitar but stopped after applying it to one portion and chose to switch finish choices.
He had started removing some of the finish but stopped when he decided not to finish the guitar and started working on another one after the wisdom he gained from this prototype.

Leo’s guitars are absolute masterpieces of the luthier craft, and as I was someone who used to build instruments with Carl Thompson and thus could appreciate what goes into such a high caliber instrument, I was honored to have the opportunity to speak with him and acquire such a special piece of his history that ultimately let to him becoming the premier Garcia/Irwin style Guitar builder.

His guitars now sell well above $10,000 (last I spoke to him, they were above $15,000) and as a result are mostly out of the price range most could ever dream of spending on an instrument like this.
Here is an opportunity to get something historically significant to the modern day legend himself for much less.
Meticulously hand carved and designed to the most fine details from years of dedicated application and study of these instruments.

As much as I would love to finish this guitar, a number of unexpected life circumstances have caused me to realize I do not know how much longer that will be before I have the time and space.
This guitar deserves to be built or at the very least, appreciated by someone for its significance within this particular community.

I am pricing it below what I paid Leo for the body over 5 years ago.
He also does not sell items like this, so this is a rare opportunity to own a piece of history and an awesome one of a kind Doug Irwin / Jerry Garcia style of guitar.

Again, Various unexpected life circumstances have caused me to realize that I need to massively pair down my collection.
If not for that, this guitar had always been in the “I will never sell this” category.
You simply will not find anything like this.
Pictures do not do it justice and it must be seen and held in person to appreciate its beauty and potential.
I know this Guitar will bring immense joy and inspiration to the next owner, just as it did for me.

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We are willing to ship Internationally. International buyers - contact us for an accurate shipping quote before making a purchase/offer.

If requested, more photos and information will be provided. No returns, so please be sure before you buy. Items are sold exactly as described in the listing (check our reviews). 


-ThorpeCollectCreate