Santa Cruz Guitar Company
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The Santa Cruz Guitar Company is an American manufacturer of
acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
s, located in Santa Cruz, California. The company was started in 1976 by luthier
Richard B. Hoover Richard Brice Hoover (born January 3, 1943) is a physicist who has authored 33 volumes and 250 papers on astrobiology, extremophiles, diatoms, solar physics, X-ray/EUV optics and meteorites. He holds 11 U.S. patents and was 1992 NASA Inventor of ...
, who is reputed to have "trained some of the most accomplished contemporary luthiers in his workshop", and investors Bruce Ross and William Davis. They produce somewhere between 500 and 700 guitars a year, and their instruments are known for being "some of the world’s finest steel-string guitars" with characteristics described as "being highly resonate and having a complexity of overtones".


History

Luthier Richard Hoover began learning his craft from Bruce McGuire and Jim Patterson in the late 1960s, and became well known in his home town of Santa Cruz, California after having run his own guitar repair and manufacturing shop for several years. In the early 1970s there was little information on building steel-string guitars available, and builders like Hoover, Bob Taylor, Jean Larrivée, and
Michael Gurian Michael Gurian is an American author and social philosopher. He works as a marriage and family counselor and corporate consultant. He has published twenty-eight books, several of which were ''New York Times'' bestseller list bestsellers. He is ...
started collaborating, sharing ideas, tools, and techniques as they discovered them. Hoover also learned from reading an "armload of books on how to make violins", supplied by his mother, who was a reference librarian, and learned techniques on wood finishes from a Swedish finish carpenter. In 1976 Hoover was approached by investors Bruce Ross and William Davis, who wanted to start their own acoustic guitar company. Hoover had made his own guitar and he was invited to join the team. The name "Santa Cruz Guitar Company" was initially a place-holder name that they expected to replace when they thought of a better one, which never happened. The company called its first model the "D", a dreadnought that they wanted to have a tone with good balance between bass and treble. They chose
koa wood ''Acacia koa'' or commonly known as koa is a species of flowering tree in the family Fabaceae. It is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, where it is the second most common tree. The highest populations are on Hawaii, Maui and Oahu. Name The name ...
for the sides and back, a wood common in guitars at the beginning of the twentieth century, but that had become rare during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Many things happened with the company in 1978. William Davis left because the company was struggling to make a healthy profit, and Hoover purchased Davis's share. They introduced the H model, named after the initial of Paul Hostetter's last name, as he introduced the guitar's concepts to Hoover and Ross. The FTC model was also introduced, which has a flat top with a carved, arched back. This model was a limited edition run, with the 17th of the series being bought by Eric Clapton. They later altered the FTC into the F model—which has a flat back, a plainer fretboard, and with the cutaway an option. Lastly, they started collaborating with Tony Rice, building a model based on his Martin d-28, a guitar that has gotten some odd modifications done to it by various repairmen. Rice started touring with the guitar which led to the company receiving many phone calls. They realized they had a something offered by nobody else, and the Tony Rice model was introduced as a standard in 1981. Richard Hoover bought out Bruce Ross in 1989 (who went on to pursue his current career in Family Therapy) and made several changes, for instance standardizing headstock shapes and neck widths on some models to get the amount of variation down. By the 1990s they had over 20 standard models, including 12 fret, smaller bodied guitars, and offered a variety of different customization options, including tone woods (Cocobolo, Ziricote, Brazilian, Figured Mahogany, etc.), custom neck shapes, inlays and custom voicing/bracing. The company focuses on fine detail, and limits its size to maintain instrument quality. They have developed new designs and understanding of materials in pursuit of a greater variation in tone—because where guitars traditionally had to produce sufficient volume to compete with other instruments, smaller bodied guitars are now amplified if necessary. The company uses both reclaimed wood and responsibly harvested new wood, having had a "green philosophy €¦from the company's beginning." Due to the company's reputation they are often approached by others who have wood available, as for instance when they in 2009 built guitars after accepting an offer of Brazilian rosewood harvested in the 1930s. Their guitars are often perceived as expensive. Some of their well-known models having expensive options, e.g., one review lists the Don Edwards signature model "Cowboy Singer" at (approx. as of March 2012). Other models are priced similar to equivalently featured instruments from other makers.


Notable players

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Alex Beaton Alex Beaton (July 15, 1944 – May 27, 2022) was a Scottish folk singer and guitarist who performed across the United States and in Canada and hosted tours to Scotland. Beaton established folk singers as a regular feature at highland games in ...
*
Jack Black Thomas Jacob Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for his acting roles in the films '' High Fidelity'' (2000), ''Shallow Hal'' (2001), ''Orange County'' (2002), '' School of Rock'' (2003), ''E ...
*
Bob Brozman Bob Brozman (March 8, 1954 – April 23, 2013) was an American guitarist and ethnomusicologist. Biography Brozman was born to a Jewish family in Long Island, New York, and began playing the guitar when he was six. He performed gypsy jazz, ca ...
* Lloyd Cole *
Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
*
Disappear Fear Disappear Fear (stylized as ''disappear fear'') is an American indie pop/indie folk/Americana music, Americana/world beat band formed in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1987. Biography Disappear Fear is a songwriter, a band, a visual artist named Sonia ...
(aka Sonia Rutstein) * Don Edwards *
Jackie Greene Jackie Greene (born November 27, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He has a solo career and became a member of The Black Crowes in 2013, though the band broke up in 2015 before he could contribute any studio work. Early life ...
* Ben Harper * Brad Paisley *
Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...
* Tony Rice * Arlen Roth


References


External links

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Richard Hoover Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2007, 2016) {{Guitar brands Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in California Companies based in Santa Cruz, California American companies established in 1976 Manufacturing companies established in 1976 1976 establishments in California