1980 Gurian HCMP

The rarest of the rarest of the bestest of the bestest Gurian guitars of ‘em all, the very elusive and oh-so enticing Size 3, with the almost-never-seen maple back and sides and what gorgeously flamed maple it is. And to top it off, it’s got the Florentine cutaway body style, cooler than cool. But wait, there's more! It also has the full Gurian treatment of perfect parallelogram marquetry around all its edges; top, back, all sides, and rosette. The works. And yet more! Factory installed is one of the very earliest, if not the earliest, high-end active electronic pickup systems in our entire world of acoustic guitar amplification, the FRAP, for Flat Response Audio Pickup, from San Francisco, with mini volume control on the treble end of the bridge, right where you need it. No expense was spared in making this most desirable of Gurian guitars. In addition to stunning flamed maple, its extra-finely-grained spruce top and blackest of ebony fingerboards on its Honduran mahogany neck, the nut and saddle are of genuine ivory and the tuning machines are the very best, German made gold-plated Schallers, with upgraded ebony buttons (the original gold ones are included). Overall condition is excellent with no cracks or flaws of any kind, ever. Setup just done right here by us with a correct .012 gauge string set and nice action height; you don't want ultra-low on a guitar like this, you want to be able to dig into it to bring out all its brilliant strengths. And to really top it all off, its original nitro-cellulose lacquer has aged to a perfectly delicious look and shows exactly the right amount of patina to let you know that it's been played well in its last forty-plus years. You will not find another like this, anywhere. $3495 w/hsc