The Don Edwards signature 00 from Santa Cruz Guitar Company is a fantastic example of the cowboy crooner’s fingerpicking partner: easy on the hands, crisp and clear, with an even decay that doesn’t get in the way of the vocals. We’ve landed a beautiful lil Mahogany number here, appropriately dubbed the SCGC Cowboy Singer in recognition of western music’s inimitable Don Edwards. This one is #17, built in 2012 with an all-Mahogany body and 12-fret neck with Don’s signature and star inlays. Slotted headstock, Waverly tuners with Snakewood knobs—and this handsome plucker is only a little over three and a half pounds! The voice has a clean and balanced definition with a scallop-braced top, and packs a lot of projection, especially for a small-bodied guitar. It’s really a fun one to pick up; it’s really a hard one to put down.

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The Slope Shoulder Dreadnought from Santa Cruz is not just for flatpicking. This well-oiled machine is sweetly balanced for a dynamic response and wide range of tones. Built in 2009, our D12 is in excellent condition and boasts impressive Brazilian Rosewood back and sides and a European Spruce top. We love playing this one with fingers in open tunings, and the setup is easy on the hands for a multitude of styles. 12 frets to the neck helps warm up the bass response, and the folks at Santa Cruz tuned the top for sweet trebles to balance everything out. Really, a lovely guitar that straddles so many genres—and excels at each, every time.

Other keywords: richard hoover, lutherie, luthier, guitarbuilding, bluegrass, slope d, fingerstyle, herringbone, dreadnaught

Richard Hoover and Santa Cruz Guitar Company have been pioneering some of the finest Dreadnoughts available on the market these days, and this Slope Shoulder with a 12-fret neck has got to be one of the finest examples of their work we’ve seen. To play this guitar, you’d hardly believe it was a Dreadnought, so rich and balanced is the voice, and how comfortable and intimate the instrument feels in your hands, thanks to the 12-fret neck and slinky low action.

With even a soft touch, this Santa Cruz lights up all across the fingerboard. These trebles are crystalline in their clearness, and offer a delicate panoply of overtones to your fingerstyle arrangements. Bass notes are full and resounding as they roll out of the Slope Shoulder body, but they retain a well-defined edge that keeps them balanced and distinct from the other registers. Despite its Dreadnought size, this guitar feels smaller, more inviting, and excellently set up for fingerpicking. Santa Cruz decided to pair a dark-grained set of Cocobolo Rosewood for the back and sides with a tight-grained German Spruce top, and what an excellent match! Like a good cabernet paired with fontina cheese, these woods give a rich and dynamic fundamental to the guitar’s voice. This Slope Shoulder is the first of five such Dreadnoughts that Santa Cruz built for the 2000 NAMM show, and you can tell: they pulled out all the stops, and spared no expense.

These days, parlor guitars are starting to experience the same degree of popularity they enjoyed in their heyday during the early 1900s, thanks to advancements in modern amplification technology and a folk and traditional music revival. Naturally, builders are also expanding their lineups to include smaller-bodied guitars for their rich tonality and comfortable playability. The Santa Cruz Guitar Company has been making parlor-size guitars for some time now, and this 2010 Style 1 Custom is an excellent example of their work. Featuring a seductively figured Brazilian Rosewood back and sides and Italian Spruce top, sparkling Abalone flowerpot inlay and MOP snowflakes, and Brazilian Rosewood bindings, you’d be hard-pressed to find another parlor in this price range that looks (and sounds) so beautiful. All that Brazilian lends this guitar a rich and dynamic range, and when paired with the Italian Spruce’s drive, creates a voice with big-bodied sustain. Santa Cruz has given this Style 1 a soft-V neck for vintage appeal and easy fretting, and the 12-fret design makes the strings expressive but not overly tight. Whether it’s for American Traditional fingerpicking or Open D Blues, this Style 1 is a powerful instrument that’s hard to put down.