Richard Hoover began building guitars and carved mandolins in 1972. By '76 his focus was on the modern steel string guitar. The task of becoming a master at all aspects of guitar-making is a lifetime preoccupation, the pace determined by how prolific the maker is. It was and is Richard's intent to translate the skills and sensitivity of the individual luthier to a small team of exceptional craftspeople -- each of whom becomes expert in their speciality. To this end Santa Cruz Guitar Company has become one of the world's most respected team of guitar builders.

Each Santa Cruz guitar receives much individual attention from their bench style of building. Each instrument which is begun has been assigned the wishes of the player who will ultimately own it and carries that personality through the process. Every guitar top is graduated and tuned by hand to attain maximum resonance and sustain. Each top is voiced to assure that the balance and tone remain consistent in each guitar of the same model or altered to accommodate the needs of a particular order. The balance, tone and response of a Santa Cruz guitar are established long before it is strung up. By limited the number of instruments built, they can practice a style of lutherie born from a genuine love of the guitar. This attention assures that every Santa Cruz guitar falls in the "exceptional" range -- the guitarist is presented with a sophisticated instrument with well-developed and complex overtones that will inspire and challenge the guitarist throughout a lifetime. Prices include hard shell case and are quoted as List / Discount / Best price for cash, bank check, money order, or wire transfer. Made in Santa Cruz, California.

Janis Ian Model

Janis Ian is a powerhouse performer on guitar. If you've ever seen her live, you can understand the challenge of building "her model." It is built to be comfortable for a guitarist requiring a smaller instrument. Black finish, cutaway, and custom L.R. Baggs pickup system combine with a parlor-size body and very contemporary look. List Price $4220 ...Discount Price $3916 ...Best Price $3798

The Tony Rice Model D

Tony Rice is the master of contemporary bluegrass guitar. He has enhanced his traditional background with influences ranging from Clarence White to John Coltrane, thereby creating a style that demands more from a guitar than a typical vintage dreadnought can offer. Tony's legendary 1930s D-28, previously owned by Clarence White, served as the model for an instrument design that combines the bass presence of the old D-28 with more substantial midrange and treble response, which is necessary for Tony's modern lead work. The sophisticated tone in the higher ranges of this guitar will inspire flatpickers to explore new territory. The Tony Rice Model is the result of a 12-year collaboration with Tony Rice, and is the epitome of a contemporary bluegrass guitar. Sitka spruce top with Indian rosewood back and sides. List Price Standard Moedl $4445 ...Discount Price $4125 ...Best Price $4001

Tony Rice Professional Model

The Tony Rice Professional Model includes certain design elements that further customize the guitar for those players seeking to emulate the style of the legendary bluegrass player. The back and sides of the guitar are made from Brazilian rosewood, and the top is carved from German spruce. The shorter scale length of 25-1/4" provides a slightly more supple feel and a sweeter tone. The soundhole on this model has been enlarged to 4-9/16", which provides a stronger response in the upper ranges. Other features include ivoroid/black/ivoroid binding on the fingerboard and peghead, and gold-plated Waverly tuners. List Price $10133 ...Discount Price $9402 ...Best Price $9120

SCGC D/PW

The new SCGC D/PW is a solid wood dreadnought-sized guitar designed to be able to provide the sophisticated tone and playability SCGC has become famous for at a price far below anything available from SCGC for many years. This guitar incorporates all of Santa Cruz's extensive experience in making acoustic guitars, and puts it to work in an elegant but simpler format. This amazing instrument will appeal to those unable to commit enough money to get into the standard line of fine Santa Cruz guitars as well as to the professional musician. The PW refers to pre-war or advanced X bracing. This style bracing gives the guitar an incredible presence and bass response yet retains a good balance with strong midrange and bright powerful treble response. The advanced X bracing also makes the guitar very responsive for fingerstyle playing as well as powerful rhythm bass lines. List Price $...Discount Price $ ...Best Price $

Vintage Jumbo Model

Santa Cruz Guitar Company's new Vintage Jumbo is Inspired by the classic round-shouldered dreadnoughts of the 1940's. Improving on a classic isn't easy, but Santa Cruz has taken this revered design to a new level of tonal power and craftsmanship in the Vintage Jumbo, creating a guitar that is pure acoustic dynamite. "Round shouldered dreadnoughts have a unique sound," enthused Santa Cruz president Richard Hoover. "Their deep, rich, bass and sweet, strong treble really shine in chord-oriented styles like country, folk and blues." The Vintage Jumbo captures this tone perfectly, and enhances it with characteristic Santa Cruz volume, balance and complexity. The Vintage Jumbo features prime tone woods: Genuine Mahogany back and sides, and Sitka spruce for the top. Hand-tuned top bracing developed specifically for this model - tapered x-braces and double tapered tone bars - result in exceptionally punchy response. The guitar was designed to favor a sweet thick timbre. It responds beautifully to the player who demands lots of headroom. The guitar is capable of delivering greatly increased volume according to the intensity of attack. You won't find this one coming up short when you call on it for more! The 1 3/4 inch neck width and rounded neck profile combine for outstanding comfort and playability. The Vintage Jumbo looks as good as it sounds. The instrument's vintage-style appointments include two-toned "tobacco" sunburst top, invoriod/black/ivoroid top binding, unbound new shape head stock (see photograph) and Waverly tuners. The Vintage Jumbo is another example of Santa Cruz's meticulous hand-crafting and attention to detail. List Price $4033...Discount Price $3742 ...Best Price $3630

Archtop

The archtop guitar demands both the finest in materials and the ultimate skill in craftsmanship from the guitar maker. Santa Cruz Guitar Company began building the Archtop in the early 1980s, and today we offer 16", 17", and 18" Archtop models. Our archtops have received high praise from both professional guitarists and other archtop builders. These exquisite instruments are ideal for both jazz and blues guitarists, providing an earthy tone and distinctive clarity in the higher ranges. As demonstrated in the accompanying photograph, the Santa Cruz archtop is an incredibly striking instrument. These exceptional guitars demand the most of our time and material resources, and we are confident that they represent the finest example of the luthier's art. 16" List Price $ ....17" List Price $ ...18" List Price $

12-Fret Dreadnought

Legendary flatpick artist and studio great Norman Blake has long appreciated the power and sensitivity of the original dreadnought size, which had 12 frets clear of the body. Our 12 Fret Dreadnought model has been created to showcase Norman's playing style and to produce the clarity and sustain necessary for an articulate response to the flat pick. Building a guitar with 12 frets clear of the body creates more air volume, which allows greater amplitude, sustain, and increased bass response. The advanced X-brace on the top is voiced to achieve maximum response in all ranges, thereby avoiding the 12 fret's usual tendency toward a powerful bass at the expense of the midrange and treble. The guitar's back and sides are made with mahogany, a wood that imparts clarity and contributes to the guitar's complexity of overtones. This model's sheer volume, incredible sustain, and sophisticated tone make it a truly inspiring instrument.

List Price M $3933 ...Discount Price $3649 ...Best Price $3540

List Price R $3650 ...Discount Price $3387 ...Best Price $3285

Vintage Artist Model D

The Vintage Artist model features a powerful bass response combined with the bright tone provided by the guitar's mahogany body. This model's prized deep, rolling bass response is achieved by both advancing the scalloped X-brace towards the soundhole and by our meticulous attention to top voicing. The separation and clarity of tone produced by the guitar are characteristic of the style of the legendary Doc Watson, who owns the prototype of the Vintage Artist (shipped to him by Mandolin Brothers).. As Doc says, "This is the Dreadnought I've been looking for all my life." We believe that this guitar is the tonal equal and technical superior of the most respected pre-World War II dreadnoughts.List Price $ ...Discount Price $ ...Best Price $

OM Model

We present the Orchestra Model as a small-body guitar with a very powerful sound. The balance of the OM favors the bass to midrange, inviting comparison to a small dreadnought. The OM has become a favorite of fingerstylists and players preferring the comfort of a smaller body that delivers considerable power. This model is our most versatile and popular guitar.Sitka spruce top with Indian rosewood back and sides.

OM Pre-War Model

The OM Pre-War Model is designed with many of the features in bracing and tone that the emerging singer-songwriter, the working musician, or a serious amateur will find desirable at a price before unheard of in guitars of this caliber. The advanced X braces, which is the bracing pattern "Pre-War" refers to, is a good tonal option for those using the guitar for smaller accompaniment or rhythm. This style bracing gives the smaller bodied OM an incredible presence and bass response, yet retains a good balance with strong midrange and bright powerful response.Sitka spruce top with Indian rosewood back and sides.

Bob Brozman Baritone

The Bob Brozman Baritone model is the ultimate guitar for blues, Hawaiian slack-key, world guitar styles, and any kind of open tuning fingerstyle music. The 27" long neck scale length creates a whole new voice in guitar music. The curved back and sides are designed to bring out the upper mid-range and treble response. The active slightly arched top bracing provides more immediate attack and cleaner, more controllable sustain and decay of each note. These unique features, combined with figured koa back and sides, spruce top, and SCGC's extremely high standards, deliver a volume, presence and tone unheard of in contemporary acoustic guitars. This utterly amazing instrument has Koa back and sides with an Adirondack top, slotted peghead, ivoroid binding, -28 style inlays, and a 1 7/8" nut width. Standard: List Price $ 4783 Professional: List Price $6433

Santa Cruz H/AE Acoustic/Electric Model

The H/AE is a slim cutaway steel string acoustic/electric, having the H body style, with added electronics for amplification and recording. The tone is sweet yet with great presence. Back and sides are pattern grade mahogany. The 21-fret 25.375" scale Honduras mahogany neck (which has a 1 11/16" nut width) has an ebony fingerboard. Position markers are 3mm lapis lazuli dots set in gold rings. The neck features a double action truss rod to counteract forward and back bowing. The Schaller mini-tuners sport ebony buttons. The hand-carved scalloped braces and graduated master-grade Sitka spruce top balances the bass and treble frequencies. The pickup system is an L. R. Baggs LBX-6 saddle pickup and Micro Drive preamp. The discrete, all transistor unit is mounted inside the body and powered by a 9v battery with a claimed life of 500% hours. The preamp is extremely quiet (-94dB S/N ratio) and can drive long cables without loss, thanks to its high-current, low-output impedance design. There are no knobs or sliders on the instrument which places the Model H. It is also available in rosewood.

000-12 Fret

The OOO is similar to the OM in size and tone, but has several distinguishing features that provide it with a more vintage styling. The primary differences are that the OOO has 12 frets and a slotted peghead, in comparison with the OM's 14 frets and solid peghead. A favorite instrument of fingerstyle players, the OOO has a slightly smoother, more bass-resonant tone than the OM. The guitar's vintage features include Waverly tuners, modern string spacing at the bridge, and a slim "V"-shape neck profile. Available with either a solid or slotted headstock, the 000-12 fret features an Indian rosewood body and sides bound in ivoroid with wood black/white/black purfling, an ebony fingerboard with ivoroid/black/ivoroid multiple binding to match the headstock's binding, a Sitka spruce top with herringbone purfling and an OM-style pickguard. The scale is 25.385" and the nut width is 1 3/4". It has an ebony headstock overlay and inlaid Santa Cruz Guitar Company's logo.

The FS Model

The FS Model is designed for contemporary fingerstyle playing. Only one in four master-grade cedar tops meets the standards required for the FS's soundboard. These tops are voiced to provide both excellent clarity for the lower string tension of open tunings and the surprising volume from even a light approach to playing. Brazilian rosewood binding and cobalt blue purfling complement the guitar's classical appearance, as well as enhance its tone. The clarity and presence of the FS will inspire the most sophisticated player.List Price $5033 ...Discount Price $4670 ...Best Price $4530

Model F

The F model (small jumbo) is visually one of the most striking guitars in the Santa Cruz line. The guitar's stylish appeal gracefully accommodates options such as the cutaway body and the Deco inlay pattern. This model is an extremely versatile instrument. The F's even balance between bass, treble, and midrange, along with its excellent projection, allow the player to place emphasis where it is desired, rather than accepting the limits of an excessively boomy or bright response. The combination of beauty and versatility in tone has earned the F model a place on stage and in the studio with artists ranging from Eric Clapton to the classical players in the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. List Price $ 3983...Discount Price $3696 ...Best Price $3585 F Cutaway List Price $ ...Discount Price $...Best Price $

Model H

Most players are astonished when they play the H model for the first time. Its volume is startling for a small-bodied guitar. Most often said to resemble the grand concert size and dreadnought depth of the "Nick Lucas" model of prewar fame, its body's depth allows for a much larger presence than would be expected in an instrument of this size, and the guitar's even balance gives the H a precise response. This model is highly recommended for those who prefer the sweetness of a small guitar but also need more volume. The Model H can optionally be built as a thin-body cutaway, a configuration that makes the guitar an even more exceptional recording instrument.

00-12 Fret

The 12-fret OO is a smaller version of the 12-fret OOO. The OO's scale is 24-7/8" and the body size is close to that of a classical guitar. The short scale of this model lends a sweet and light quality to the tone. The OO is further differentiated by its unique rectangular bridge. This model is ideal for players seeking a warm and intimate guitar with open, airy tone.

PJ

The all-mahogany PJ is not designed as a miniature or travel guitar, despite its size. At one time there were many "parlor guitars," but larger, louder instruments took center stage. The PJ incorporates contemporary design techniques, including optimized bracing and top construction so that the sound is exceptionally balanced. The sidesand back are mahogany, with a Sitka spruce top. Don't let its small size and 24" scale fool you--the PJ is truly a sophisticated guitar, perfect for cosy settings and studio recording. List Price PJ M $ ...Discount Price $ ...Best Price $ List Price PJ R $3833 ...Discount Price $3557 ...Best Price $3450

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