Santa Cruz 000-ND Rising Fawn

I am the same person who reviewed this guitar above, but when I did I made a couple of dumb typographical errors, so this is just a brief follow-up to set the record straight. The model is actually called 000-NB Rising Fawn (NB, not ND!), and it is only available at frettedproducts.com in California. The other important mistake I need to correct is the the back and sides are mahogany, not rosewood. I can't believe I made that mistake. Anyway, it's a GREAT guitar!

Santa Cruz guitars are made in California, and this is a custom job. Only twelve of these Norman Blake-inspired guitars will be made; I was the first to buy one. It's a 12-fret sitka and Indian rosewood 000 with the body depth of a dreadnaught; neck width is 1 13/16 at the nut. As is Santa Cruz's style, nut and saddle are bone, and the ebony bridge is pyramid style. Neck inlay is long style diamonds and squares (Is that what it's called?). I mean, a well-designed and unique guitar! As far as I know, there are no other guitars this size with the dreadnaught depth.

From it's features and size, some might conclude that this is a finger-style guitar, and so it could be used that way. But Norman Blake's a flatpicker, and that's how I play mine. The neck is the size I'm used to, and the increased depth makes it perfectly proportioned, in my opinion. I don't think you can fairly compare it to anything its size because I don't beleive there is anything this exact size. Santa Cruz, Collings, and Gibson sell smallerdeeper-bodied guiatrs, but not in the 000 size. This thing is great!

OK, this is my first experience with Santa Cruz and I ordered over the internet, so to say I was a bit apprehensive would be putting it mildly. But what a great surprise! Santa Cruz did a wonderful job here: low action, no blemishes or obvious shortcuts, excellent-looking and pretty-sounding. I mean, what else is there? Just enough bling, too: ivorid buttons on good Santa Cruz tuners, nice neck inlay, Martin style 28 features.

Now this is a category I can't comment on too much. To be honest, I've heard some bad things about Santa Cruz necks (needing early resets), but I've also heard wonderful things. These things are light as a feather, although this rosewood is not as light as a mohagony would be, I suspect. Will that affect its durability? I don't think so, but I'll have to wait and see. I'm guessing that this is a very well-thought out guitar, given its design history, so I'm not worried about it lasting or diminishing in value.

No comment here, either, but I'm told that Richard Hoover himself often speaks with customers on the phone, and in fact I'm going to try to call him myself one of these days and chat it up about this guitar.

I've been playing for a few years now and also own a Martin 000-28 Norman Blake. The reason I've bought two Blake-inspired guiatrs is that they're both very unique. Both are unlike anything else available, and both are really great, but different sounding from one another. If you play old time music (Carter family, etc.) in your living room like I do, and don't care about playing in a band, this is a perfect sitting-in-your-chair-and-picking guitar. Would I replace it? Yeah, but I don't think I could, as there are only twelve being produced.