Articles & Reviews | Santa Cruz Guitar Company

ACOUSTIC GUITAR – Richard Hoover’s Santa Cruz Guitar Co. Celebrates a Milestone

In late May, the acoustic-blues and folk singer Otis Taylor was hanging out at Immersive Studios in Boulder, Colorado, working on some new songs, when he ran into Bill Nershi, the guitarist for String Cheese Incident. The two got to talking about their instruments.
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Inside the Santa Cruz Guitar Company by Teja Gerken

Founded 30 years ago, Santa Cruz Guitar Company has been a pioneer of modern American lutherie. Fusing tradition and innovation, the company has grown to be a leading manufacturer of custom instruments. Acoustic Guitar talks with cofounder Richard Hoover about his company’s past, present, and future. Includes extended slideshow of our Santa Cruz shop visit.d-X pattern.
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Santa Cruz Economic Development – The Sit Down: Santa Cruz Guitar Company

Collaboration is everywhere in Santa Cruz. From entrepreneurs that come together to start a new business, to businesses sharing materials and supplies, we are a community that loves to work together. Our newest Choose Santa Cruz video series, The Sit Down, is all about local businesses that work together. The first video in this series features long time Santa Cruz business Santa Cruz Guitar Company. We got to sit down with Richard Hoover, founder and CEO, to learn more about his business and his collaboration with Ventana Surfboards and Supplies and Sylvan Music.
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Acoustic UK – SCGC debuts Brad Paisley signature model and new string range

The new model made for the country superstar is to be unveiled at the 2015 Summer NAMM show in Nashville, Tennessee, along with the news of SCGC’s Parabolic Tension Strings.
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Acoustic UK – Santa Cruz Guitar Company FTC 40th Anniversary

California luthiers Santa Cruz decided their 40th anniversary was a great time to revisit a classic – and what better choice than this quirky flat-top cutaway made famous by one E Clapton?
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Fretboard Journal – Richard Hoover / Santa Cruz Guitar Company

In 1966 a young Richard Hoover got the notion that he could somehow improve the tone of his old Harmony guitar by fiddling around with its insides. So he took it apart and, more importantly, managed to get it back together. His first attempt at guitar surgery didn’t make his Harmony sound better, but it did instill in him the desire to build guitars of his own.
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Good Times – Santa Curz Guitar Company Turns 40

Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover exists in a depth of technicality that I find, frankly, overwhelming—and I’ve played guitar for 25 years. Where I see an unfinished fretboard, Hoover sees a piece
of mathematical precision. Where I see a piece of wood, Hoover sees a potential guitar top, and taps on eight or so spots to hear the different tones the wood creates. He can hear that the tones are in harmony with each other.
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Reverb – Santa Curz Guitar Company at 40: Richard Hoover Reflects

Over the past few decades, the boutique acoustic guitar world has blossomed into a market all its own. Companies of all sizes and builders from all over the world have thrown their hats into the ring, steadily producing some of the most beautiful and innovative instruments ever made.
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Frets Magazine – Richard Hoover on 40 Years of Santa Cruz Guitars

“Our philosophy is to be an open source, because we get as much as we give—sometimes more,” says Santa Cruz Guitar Company honcho and acoustic-guitar whisperer Richard Hoover.

These are not simply facile, “feel good” words. Hoover really means what he says. So if you’re lucky enough to take his factory tour of the company in sunny Santa Cruz, California, you should become inspired and fascinated by his openness and curiosity.
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ACOUSTIC MAGAZINE – Eric Clapton & his Santa Cruz FTC

‘The beginning of this story is back before email. I walked to the mailbox one day and there was an envelope on which the return address was E. Clapton, London, England.’ So begins the remarkable story of a beautiful instrument in the hands of one of the most celebrated players on the planet and its occasionally bumpy rite of passage over the last 35 years…
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Frets Review – Santa Cruz Brad Paisley Signature B/PW

Brad Paisley’s image as a Tele-slingin’ shredder might tend to overshadow the fact that he’s also an astute acoustic player with a deep appreciation for the sound of fine steel-string flat-tops. His decision to partner with Santa Cruz Guitar Company to create a signature model has led to the introduction of yet another awesome guitar in the SCGC line: The Brad Paisley Signature—or B/PW as we’ll refer to it from here on—is based on the company’s Pre-War Dreadnought model and features a body made of solid Indian rosewood with a top of figured “bearclaw” Sitka spruce that’s supported by spruce bracing in a scalloped/advanced-X pattern.
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JOHN FOGERTY THE AG INTERVIEW BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

John Fogerty’s long standing favorite acoustic guitars are two Gibson Southern Jumbos: one from 1952, which has a P-90 pickup and is tuned down to D, and the other from 1954, which stays in standard tuning. These SJs are all over his latest album, and he considers them the holy grail — and irreplaceable, so he won’t tour with them. At the suggestion of his guitar buddy Brad Paisley, who owns a Santa Cruz Guitar Co. interpretation of the prewar dreadnought, Fogerty contacted Santa Cruz about building a guitar modeled after his Gibson SJs.Read the Full Article

The Guitar Note – Inside the Santa Cruz Guitar Company

Richard Hoover and his team at the Santa Cruz Guitar Company build guitars with world class care and precision. Their instruments define quality, with each guitar individually voiced and tuned by a skilled luthier. Yet, Richard also sees the value in mass produced guitars.“”Read the Full Article

Inside The Trojan Horse: Santa Cruz Guitar Company

There are those that believe acoustic guitar design was perfected before World War II. But for the last 35 years, the Santa Cruz Guitar Company has been improving on the designs of the past and fine tuning them for each individual instrument that leaves their shop.“We do a lot of Trojan Horse, stealth stuff,” company founder and owner Richard Hoover says. “The dangerous stuff is on the inside where you can’t see it.”

Artisan turns vintage wood into treasures – San Jose Mercury News

SANTA CRUZ — The philosophical riddle is posed so often it has grown mossy with cliche: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? It turns out the answer is yes, it makes an amazing sound, although the eruption of this joyful noise may not occur for centuries, when it is sliced into pear-shaped tones at the Santa Cruz Guitar Company.Just as Michelangelo believed every block of stone had a statue hidden inside, craftsmen in Santa Cruz who make artisanal acoustic guitars crave fallen timber for its distinctive timbre.

Building the Guitar You’ll Keep – Wired Magazine

James Nash didn’t pack a guitar when he went off to college, which in hindsight was a boneheaded move.Nash was 17 at the time and had been playing for about a dozen years. He was good. But he didn’t have any plans to “do music seriously” and didn’t think he’d play much while he was at school.That didn’t last. Once you’ve discovered you enjoy playing the guitar, you can’t stop playing the guitar. It wasn’t long before Nash was borrowing guitars, playing whatever he could get his hands on whenever he could get his hands on it. Somewhere along the line he picked up a cheap Japanese guitar and was happy. His father, however, was not.

1934 D Reviewed in Vintage Guitar Magazine

While the guitars that grace the pages of Vintage Guitar are usually about your father and grandfathers guitars. It seemed natural to write about the Santa Cruz 1934 D, since it is made of wood from the 30’s. Essentially the experience of playing a holy grail that is brand new. Needless to say, Stephen Stone jumped at the chance to review the legendary 1934 D.

OMPW one of Acoustic Guitar’s 20 trend setting products in the last 20 years!

Already respected for building great OMs, the Santa Cuz Guitra Compnay hit a home run when it introduced the OM/PW (Orchestra Model Pre-War) in 1999. With an original list price of just over $2,000, the guitar was one of the able instrument, and it has become a popular and widely lauded guitar. Within a couple of years, Santa Cruz added a dreanought version with the D/PW“Acoustic Guitar on the OM/PW, July of 2003“We were taken by the instrument’s fat trebles which were complemented by a nice breathy bass and a wide dynamic range. Generally, the OM/PW handled strumming and fingerpicking remarkably well, and fingerstyle technique revealed great note separation and clarity. The OM/PW ranked as one of the favoirtes of theis roundup.”

Reviewed – Cowboy Singer

Reviewed – 1934D Mahogany

Reviewed -Vintage Jumbo

Reviewed Vintage Southerner