Tobias Music & my new Santa Cruz OOO
I recently visited Tobias Music to bring my Martin HD28KM in so Ken could send it to Martin for repair and I played a Santa Cruz 000. I mentioned to Ken that I wanted to check out a 14 fret Santa Cruz based on comments at the The Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum. Wow, was I in for a surprise. You might say it was an impulse purchase, because something in the back of my mind told me it would diminish the waiting pain for my HD28KM to return from Martin. My wife and I went out for dinner at a local restaurant in Downers Grove so I could get it out of my mind. I guess we shouldn’t have gone to an Irish pub known for live entertainment! Anyway, we went back and I purchased the Santa Cruz 000 without even looking at anything else. I do regret not playing the dreadnaught version, but when it comes to things that I love, I can never make a decision. I would have been torn between two great guitars and the 000 knocked my socks off. It has been a week and I have no second thoughts.
Ken Tobias lowered the action and adjusted the neck just a bit to my likes and we were off. I would have changed the strings as soon as I got it home, like I do with every new guitar, but Santa Cruz shipped it with Elixir Nanoweb strings and it looks like I was the first person to ever play this guitar! It had absolutely zero shop wear. I travel a lot for work and I have visited many guitar stores that have huge inventories of guitars that I would never purchase because of shop wear. I even saw a Santa Cruz Tony Rice that had a repaired cracked top in a store in St. Louis. I always thought my first Santa Cruz would be a Tony Rice, but after seeing the one in St. Louis, I lost interest. Tobias Music is the only place I know that keeps their guitars in their cases. After I purchased my martin 00028EC at Tobias Music I noticed that I could have paid a lot more for a broken-in version at Guitar Center!
The OOO is similar to an Orchestra Model (OM) small-body guitar in size, but has 12 frets and a slotted peghead. They say it’s a fingerstyle guitar, probably because it has a wider neck (width at nut is 1-3/4"). The 1-3/4” neck is the reason I purchased my Martin HD28KM and 00028EC. The Santa Cruz 000 definitely has a longer scale than the 00028EC and is not as easy to play, but the longer scale length of the 000 is great for alternate tunings and it sounds better. My HD28KM is out for repair so I can’t compare its sound to my favorite sounding dreadnaught. When compared to my 00028EC it sounds deeper and more open. I used to think my 00028EC sounded great and now it sounds like something is dampening its overtones.
Here is a link to the Santa Cruz specifications for the 000
The Unofficial Site for Santa Cruz Guitars (I'm Kevin01)
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posted by Kevin's Guitars @ 8:19 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hi Kevin,
Earlier this week I was about to post a heads up on the Unofficial Santa Cruz Forum (under the name Klooks Kleek) about the review of the Vintage Southerner in Acoustic Guitar magazine when I saw you had beat me to it by a couple hours. I was visiting Guitar Center on Memorial Day with a friend for their big "sale" (sic), got kinda bored and started paging through the magazine.
Your post drove me to your blog and I was pleased to see your new Cruz as well as your link to Tobias Music. I bought a Santa Cruz VJ from Tobias a couple summers ago and can't say enough about that tiny but excellent shop and its owners. In fact, visiting your blog prompted me to check in with the Tobias website, where I spotted a pre-owned Gibson ES-335 for sale. I took a trip to the shop earlier tonight, tried it out and caught up a little bit with Ken. Wish I could say I left with the Gibby in hand but I'm still considering it.
Keep on playin'!
Anthony, I’m glad I was able to help inspire another guitar player. It is hard to pass a guitar store , even a GC. It is amazing how one can get bored at a guitar store that literally has more than 100 acoustic guitars hanging on the wall! I get sick because there are so many guitars in need of repair that are being sold as new, and such high prices. I have been to their big memorial day sale before. I think it is the only time they sell for a decent price. Caution is, I think it is when they dump all the damaged inventory.
You would think that their prices would be lower because of high volume, but I have found that their prices can be much higher. Especially among higher end acoustic guitars, if you can find one that is not ruined because of shop wear or humidity. Possibly this is the reason smaller shops can offer better prices! If you think about it, every guitar is properly cared for and is sold to happy customers. Less returns = better guitars and less being resold as new.
Good luck, I hope you get that ES-335, Kevin
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