Santa Cruz 00

Homemade guitar, brand founded in California by Richard Hoover.
Format 00 (Martin prewar type), head pierced, waverly vintage mechanical, handle 12 boxes of width 44 mm, solid sitka table, solid Indian rosewood body, key, bridge, ebony pegs.
The build quality is absolute perfection as the exterior and interior of the body.
The guitar is beautiful.
2tui original wood.

UTILIZATION

After passing to my favorite luthier, the handle is very nice, my only regret is the narrow (44mm), and also that despite the short scale (63.5 cm), contact with the strings is not as flexible as Dupont, however, that my tune a standard 65cm ..
But the size of his body is perfect for me, it can take over the shoulder, giving an inclination of the handle perfect for fingerstyle play a very technical. in addition it is rather slight.
The high E string is very close to the edge of the button, and the smallest grace note increases the risk of slippage and produce a pain.Il must learn to incorporate this parameter in his game

SOUNDS

There is a real hit, the guitar has an average power (my 000 Dupont format is much more), but the sound is beautiful and also very American, very close to high-end Martins (from 41 models will tell us).
Deep bass with great sharpness, sharp and exquisitely beaded crystal, all being well balanced.
The game is also delicious with a pick, both in rhythm and chorus crosspicking (his is the treble is a marvel).
The open tuning game gives me chills every time on this guitar.

OVERALL OPINION

Frankly, I bought at a price of OCCAZ pleased ^ t interesting (it dates from 1992) given the rarity of this type of instrument in France.
Its format makes it extremely ergonomic and it sounds wonderful, suddenly we wonder why there are bigger guitars, except for a little more volume, though ...
Of all the American guitars that I had the opportunity to acquire and then sell it (Martin, Guild, Gibson, Taylor, Collings), the Santa Cruz but are preferred, it is this sound and crystal beaded typical of very old Martins, who m'envoute. But this is a matter of taste.