{"id":144789,"date":"2024-06-30T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-30T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=144789"},"modified":"2024-06-29T11:39:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T18:39:36","slug":"santa-cruz-guitar-company-new-vault-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/santa-cruz-guitar-company-new-vault-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Cruz Guitar Company\u2019s Richard Hoover Brings out His Choicest Tonewoods for the Stunning New Vault Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photos by Joshua Huver<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long ago, Richard Hoover, the charismatic leader of Santa Cruz Guitar Company, in Northern California, reflected on his life in lutherie and the stash of precious tonewoods that he had been gathering throughout his five decades in the boutique business\u2014everything from ancient kauri to sinker redwood to old-growth Brazilian rosewood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEver since I started getting wood for guitars, I\u2019ve come across pieces that were just too good to use and set them aside for later,\u201d says Hoover, 74. \u201cAnd now that it\u2019s later, I wanted to do something with this legacy and make some guitars using not just the prettiest but the rarest, the most unobtainable and irreplaceable stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoover decided to enlist a team of the most skilled luthiers in his workshop to build a limited series of instruments that would represent the pinnacle of his artistry, and the state of the art of the steel-string guitar. The series\u2014dubbed the Vault, a reference to the opening of Hoover\u2019s prized wood reserves\u2014made its official debut last January at the NAMM show in Anaheim, California. \u201cI wanted to see how the public would react, because you and I know that it can be cringeworthy for a guitar maker to do something like this,\u201d Hoover says. \u201cBut the guitars were really well received; people understood exactly what they were about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n