Grez Guitars pays homage to '50s-era electric guitars with the Mendocino Junior, built from 100-year-old redwood

Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior
(Image credit: Grez Guitars)

Petaluma, California-based builder Grez Guitars has announced the Mendocino Junior, a new guitar with a body crafted using reclaimed old growth redwood.

Paying homage to '50s-era electric guitars, the lightweight six-string sports a plethora of high-end appointments, including a one-piece Honduran mahogany neck and 12'-radius, 22-fret Macassar ebony fingerboard with maple inlays, MojoAxe Wrap tailpiece and Satin Nitro finish.

Electronics include a singular Wolftone Meaner Dog Ear P-90 pickup, controlled via walnut-finished master volume and tone knobs.

“Inspired by the vintage pieces we love from the '50s, I sought to create instruments with the same feel and sound,” says luthier Barry Grezbik.

“Building with first growth reclaimed wood originally harvested 100 years ago gave us a head start. This wood is super well-seasoned and has a liveliness that is hard to get from younger recently harvested trees.”

The Mendocino Junior is available now for $2,700. For more information, head to Grez Guitars.

The new offering is, of course, not the first guitar in Grez's lineup to feature old growth redwood. Last year, the company launched the Smugglers Bridge Folsom, which features wood from redwood trees that are approximately 1,000 years old.

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Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.