Petros Guitars, in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, make high end, boutique instruments. All of their instruments are special, but one recent guitar stands out -- for a variety of reasons.

The Tunnel 13 Gold Special guitars from Petros are made from redwood first used in the Southern Pacific Railroad's Siskiyou Summit Tunnel number 13 in Oregon. This virgin redwood was harvested in the 1880s. In 1923, the famous hold up of the SP Train 13 Gold Special by the DeAutremont brothers took place. Four men were killed in cold blood during that attempted robbery. The brothers were not master robbers. They left a receipt at the scene with their names on it along with a gun that was traced back to them. They all wound up with life sentences. After over twenty years in prison, one brother was paroled while ill with cancer, and he died within weeks. Another had a mental breakdown in prison, and the final brother was paroled in 1961 and became a janitor at the University of Oregon.

While the DeAutremont brothers were not master criminals, the folks at Petros Guitars are master craftsmen. They cracked open this redwood timber to find master-grade tonewood that had been air drying for over 120 years. And redwood is a special tonewood to begin with, according to Bruce Petros.

"Redwood is like cedar on steroids. Its dry and crisp and clear while producing great low end fundamentals. It has more overtones than cedar so its really a great tonewood that does it all," he says. "Also, plenty of headroom, but that's really more a matter of top construction than the wood. Just thought I'd mention that because people seem to associate headroom (or the lack thereof) with specific woods."

And, if redwood is cedar on steroids, this particular redwood is Jose Canseco, Marion Jones and Ben Johnson all rolled into one.

"THIS Redwood, for one, is from virgin, old growth trees. These trees grew very slowly so the annual rings are VERY close together. It is VERY stiff and rings like glass. Some of the sets have over 80 annual rings per inch. I have some new growth Redwood here in my shop that has about four annual rings per inch. There is other old growth Redwood out there, but it often is quite streaky," says Petros. "That doesn't make it bad tonewood, but this stuff is just more elegant because it is so pristine. It has also been air drying in the train tunnel for over 120 years. Its pretty set in its ways! I love Redwood for tops and have been searching for good stuff for many years. Like I've said, there's a lot of streaky stuff out there. I wanted visually pristine Redwood and wasn't able to find it until I found this. Its perfect AND it has a great story with lots of history. This is probably the find of my career."

But beyond the blood-soaked history and the quality of the wood, what do these guitars sound like and what sort of player are they made for?

"Any player would like these. They are very expressive,' says LJ Booth, the owner of the first T13 guitar and the songwriter who is writing the Tunnel 13 theme song.

"The woods are all very light. The whole guitar weighs just three pounds, 14 ounces," says Petros. "Imagine a guitar in your hands that weighs two pounds more than that. Guess which one will sound better. Guess which one you'll enjoy hanging around your neck for two hours. The whole thing reverberates in your hands. Its an amazing experience. Certainly it's dynamite for the fingerstyle players, but it works equally well for strummers."

At $13,000 these guitars are probably not something you want to take out on a "van tour" of punk rock dives (for one thing the guitar would be worth more than the van). But they are road worthy.

"I probably wouldn't play it in a cowboy bar where the patrons are throwing beer bottles. But other than that, it's as durable as any hand made guitar. If you plan on playing guitar on the beach or in a row boat or on the ski hill, I'd probably get a graphite guitar," he says. "If you are playing normal gigs, why not enjoy your favorite ax? Just take reasonable and responsible care of it. If you just want to keep it at home and in the studio where you want full enjoyment and maximum inspiration, I wouldn't blame you either. The first week LJ had it, he took it to an island songwriting retreat. The following week he played outside at Big Top Chautauqua. He said the neck never moved. He has it set up quite low and there was never a buzz."

As noted the guitars of Petros are all special but this guitar may be something of a "first among equals."

"I like to think all of my guitars stand out for numerous and different reasons. This one specifically has this gorgeous and historic Redwood top. It also has a Butternut neck. I will use this on other guitars if requested, but I am making this standard on this model," he says. "It falls into my new 'Ultra light' series. I love lightweight guitars. The design work is unique and the color scheme is unlike anything else out there. I love to work with natural wood colors. You'd think people would get tired of purple Indian Rosewood and white Sitka guitars! There are a lot of great woods out there that make great and often superior sounding instruments."

The Tunnel 13 Gold Special is available in a variety of body styles and with or without a cutaway. Nut width is up to the player and Petros says other options might be available (within reason, no Flying V's).

Petros does not call this a "limited edition guitar" but, in reality, there is only so much of the wood.

"Obviously the tops are limited in number and not renewable. Maybe only about 3 or 4 percent of the wood in the tunnel was ever suitable for guitar tops," he says. "Much of it was destroyed in the fire. Some of it was sent to the dump before it was saved. Some of the sections I got that looked to promise 20 or so top sets revealed hidden knots and cracks that diminished the yield to three or four sets."

If you want one of these, save your pennies. They will not be available for long.