Santa Cruz Guitar Company

Company type	Private
Industry	Musical instrument manufacturing
Genre	Guitars
Founded	1976; 49 years ago (1976)
Founder	Richard Hoover
Headquarters	Santa Cruz, California , United States
Products	Acoustic, acoustic bass & baritone guitars Mandocello Ukuleles
Number of employees	22
Website	www.santacruzguitar.com

External videos
Oral History, Richard Hoover talks about his philosophy for the company and the pride he has for its effect on the industry. Interview date July 28, 2007, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Oral History Library

Santa Cruz Guitar Company is an American manufacturer of acoustic guitars, located in Santa Cruz, California. The company was started in 1976 by luthier Richard Hoover, who is reputed to have "trained some of the most accomplished contemporary luthiers in his workshop", and investors Bruce Ross and William Davis.^[1] They produce somewhere between 500 and 700 guitars a year,^[2][3] and their instruments are known for being "some of the world’s finest steel-string guitars"^[1] with characteristics described as "being highly resonate and having a complexity of overtones".^[3]

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 70s there was little information on building steel-string guitars available, and builders like Hoover, Bob Taylor, Jean Larrivée, and Michael Gurian started collaborating, sharing ideas, tools, and techniques as they discovered them.^[1] Hoover also learned from reading an "armload of books on how to make violins", supplied by his mother who was a reference librarian,^[2] and learned techniques on wood finishes from a Swedish finish carpenter.^[1]

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.^[1] The company's first model was called the "D", a dreadnought that they wanted to have a tone that had a balance between bass and treble. They chose koa wood for the sides and back, a wood that was commonly used in the beginning of the twentieth century, but became rare during the Great Depression.^[1]

The company saw many things happen in 1978. William Davis left the company because it was struggling to make a healthy profit. Hoover purchased Davis's share of the company. They introduced the H model, named after the initial of Paul Hostetter's last name, as he was the person who introduced the guitar's concepts to Hoover and Ross.^[1] 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,^[4] 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.^[1]

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.

During their entire history the company has focused on fine detail, and limited their size so they could make each instrument sound its best.^[1] 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 can now be amplified if necessary.^[3] The company uses both reclaimed wood and responsibly harvested new wood, having had a "green philosophy […] from the company's beginning".^[3][5] 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 for Brazilian rosewood harvested in the 1930s.^[6]

Their guitars are often perceived as being expensive, which might be due to some of their more well-known models having expensive options, e.g. one review lists the Don Edwards signature model "Cowboy Singer" at £4,300 (approx. US$6,850 as of March 2012).^[7] Other models are priced similar to equivalently featured instruments from other makers.^[1]

• Tony Rice^[1]
• Bob Brozman^[1]
• Disappear Fear ( aka SONiA Rutstein )^[1]
• Don Edwards^[3][7]
• Brad Paisley^[2]
• Robert Plant^[2]
• Ben Harper^[2]
• Elvis Costello^[3]
• Lloyd Cole^[3]
• Arlen Roth

• Company homepage
• Richard Hoover Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2007, 2016)