About two hundred years ago, what we now know as the Spring Garden Historic District came together as a couple of neighborhoods around Philadelphia's Fairmount Avenue, Vine Street, and Spring Garden Street. Like a lot of early American neighborhoods, the area grew into a place where people came in, got to work, and made a home. In 2019, we did the same.
Today, we have The Lucy, a custom-assembled guitar from Russo Music Philadelphia's two hundred year-old yellow pine structure. This single-cut electric comes together with generations of history baked in from its ancient pine body. It has quite the story to tell – and the story goes on.
Lucy in Philly
Introducing the Russo Music Lucy Custom Singlecut
1004 Spring Garden Street today is home to Russo Music Philadelphia. Moving in around 2019, we took to some renovations of the Union Transfer corner to make room for the many, many guitars we brought with us. Part of the renovations included work with the building's original joist rafters to make room for stairs to our second floor. We held on to some of the wood cut away from the joist – for what, a rainy day, a lazy Sunday? Maybe. We did have something in mind, though.
The Lucy is a custom-assembled guitar utilizing the yellow pine sourced from our building's original joists. Cut to a classic single-cutaway shape, the Lucy's yellow pine serves as a captivating aesthetic and musical look generations back. Throughout the Lucy, Russo Music history blooms from its pine body to its custom appointments to its name. Sharing its namesake with Mrs. Lucy Russo, who started Russo Music with her husband Stephen in 1960, the Lucy is a physical embodiment of countless years of musical history in the making.
Lucy's List
Russo Music Lucy Custom Singlecut Specifications
The Lucy starts with an instantly classy single-cutaway body made from yellow pine. In the '50s and '60s a key pick for southern Californian guitar bodies – and in the 1800s a key pick for buildings in the City of Brotherly Love – pine appears here with Lucy fitted with a smuggler's rout for weight relief and resonance. Across the four Lucies, the beauty of the wood is exhibited through a natural, vintage-style nitrocellulose gloss lacquer finish that puts every inch of grain on display with one model in particular exhibiting the deep, exposed texture of the pine joist from its position in the renovation process.
From here, the pine body is built out with a robust array of quality parts. First, an AllParts neck extends out from each pine body – two in a '60s "C" shape and two in a '50s "V". Across the four Lucies, the two models with '60s "C" necks feature rosewood fingerboards while their '50s "V" counterparts feature maple. Each fingerboard measures to a vintage-inspired 7.25" radius for a more rounded, retro feel on the fingertips.
Russo Music "The Lucy" Hardware and Electronics
For their voice, each Lucy is fitted with a pair of – what else but – vintage-style single-coil pickups. Custom-made, hand-wound, and exclusive Luther Lee pickups drop in to each Lucy wound with Alnico V magnets. Each neck pickup winds up for a cooler, '60s-style single-coil neck tone while each bridge pickup winds up hotter for a punchier, P-90-flavored sound. Throughout these pickups' wiring schemes, Emerson Premier Pro solid shaft potentiometers and Orange Drop capacitors appear for smooth tonal shaping. This tonal experience is made its best with robust hardware from Kluson including a Hybrid intonated brass barrel-saddle bridge and Deluxe Series tuning machines.
Finally, the Lucy travels in style with included accessories. From our friends at D'Addario, each Lucy comes with a Pro Plus capo, a microfiber polishing cloth, a Nexxus 360 rechargeable headstock tuner, a fifteen-foot instrument cable, and a bottle of finish detailer. That's not all, however. Each Lucy comes with an included Russo Music exclusive Souldier guitar strap – itself with a design inspired by our Philadelphia store's walls – and a Gator Cases Deluxe wood case with a custom Russo Music badge.
Each Lucy features a Russo Music headstock decal, neckplate stamp, and serial number. On three of the Lucies, a serial number refers to the year of one of our three brick-and-mortar stores' opening, with 1960 as the fourth for Russo Music's first year of operation.
I Love Lucy
The Lucy is a guitar that is truly one of a kind, we think is fair to say. Over two hundred years of Philadelphia history and over sixty years of Russo Music history make it something truly unique and truly special. We're more than proud to share this with the world, because, as you can imagine, we like Lucy quite a lot.
We love Lucy, and we're sure you will too.
