[tadol]

So Danny – you’ve had that beauty a few weeks now, hopefully its all settled into your environment, and maybe you’ve even had a chance to tweak the setup and try some other strings –

whats the word?  😉

[tadol]

I think its important to emphasize that Richard is very particular about how and where his koa is sourced from – true Hawaiian koa has been extremely over-harvested, and much of it is now protected. This wasn’t always the case – when koa was first brought onto the market, it was cheaper than walnut, and because of its unusual color and figure, got used for everything. Richards first guitars were made with koa – I have D#4, and its lived a very hard life, but its still a very nice guitar – and SCGC has used koa quite a bit over the years. But increased awareness and demand caused the price and availability of the premium material to skyrocket. Nice, because it meant we didn’t see so many large sets of kitchen cabinets being made from flamed koa, but not nice, because it caused quite a black market in koa. Lots of very old trees were getting cut on protected lands, or individuals were finding stumps on their property after a weekend away –

Richard won’t use anything that isn’t correctly obtained, and of the best quality – which means that the amount of material available is small, and the price can be high. But his resources and connections are deep and well established, so Santa Cruz should always have outstanding guitars made from premium koa available to purchase  – but I doubt the price will come down.

As said above, there are a number of very nice acacias, and some are extremely difficult to tell apart from Hawaiian acacia koa, and even have much of the same color and figure, so we’ll see what that means in years ahead. And with the increase in demand and price, there is more effort to replant and grow more on the islands, so again, we’ll see what that means in the years ahead. But maybe not my lifetime. That’s OK – I have all the koa SC guitars I need (about 6!)

Yes – if you want koa, SCGC is definitely the shop to talk to –

[tadol]

Spent some time on your website and found your interview with North American Guitar quite interesting – I should put this on a list for my wife to consider when (if?) I deserve a special birthday or xmas gift –

[tadol]

Thats really interesting – If you ever get around to doing a recording with the pickup turned all the way down, and then turning it up to hear how it compares, that’d be very informative –

I’ve tried a soundhole pickup, but having that cord dangling down was such a PITA – I imagined installing a jack in the guitar that the pickup could plug into, but then I figured once I had it all dialed in, I’d not want to take it in and out – maybe I need to rethink it and try it again –

[tadol]

Based on just that one pic, if your action isn’t right down and practically resting on the frets, I’d suggest you need to get a neck reset. I would not recommend shaving the bridge except as a absolute last resort, with heavy emphasis on absolutely and last –

I have a few SC guitars that have that little saddle sticking up from the bridge – a 12 string in particular – but they play very nicely, the action height is good and they’ve been extremely stable for years, so I haven’t made any effort to look into getting necks reset – maybe one of these days I’ll see if someone wants to take on 3 or 4 at once, but it’s not a priority.  But you aren’t getting enough down pressure there, and I think a greater break angle is needed, so I would get it carefully evaluated by someone with good experience with this – obviously, the SCGC mothership would be ideal, but if getting the guitar there and back is too difficult, a call to them might get you a recommendation of someone closer to you who they’d recommend to look at it. I hope you have a decent backup guitar ready to keep going with –

Let us know what you find out!  Good Luck –

[tadol]

Those small guitars are just lovely, and sound sooo sweet! I think you’ve found a very special guitar there – Congrats!!

[tadol]

Those are beauties!  They haven’t made very many FTCs, I wonder if we could track down every one? Between you and me and this ad for #1, we got 6 already found!

[tadol]

Wow !  Very stunning guitar –  and I guess you’re pretty lucky to have a SC in braz rw outside the US!  But I guess I missed something – what is your book about, and how does the maestro fit into it?  Be good to know, since it sounds like I can’t count on Hank to get me a copy –

😉

[tadol]

Your feedback on this would be good – I’m generally feeling that if I can’t do the job with a mic, and thats the guitar I wanna use, then I’d put a pickup in it. And I’m still loving the quality and simplicity of the UltraTonic –

[tadol]

So – my only problem is after a wee dram or two, I can find myself pretty happy if you hand me most anything to play. Especially if you hand it to me already in tune –

 

😉

[tadol]

I’m using SCGC Lights mostly – this new OM came to me with an older set of SCs already on it, and while they sound good, they may be almost a year old already, so I’m looking forward to giving it a hear with some fresh ones. I think it needs a slight truss rod tweak, but I’m letting it get used to it’s new home before I do anything to it – it’ll be around a while, so there’s no rush –

[tadol]

Do you need to swap out that low E? Tuning that far down with my current strings would be pretty rattly –

[tadol]

Ahh – a ‘29 000 is a fantastic guitar. I had one, and got talked into selling it, which I quickly regretted, so immediately started to look for a replacement. I found lots of 00s, but the 000 was harder to find. I did find a ‘29 OM, and grabbed that, and its really nice – not loud, but so very musical. But it has that same 1-¾” nut. I’ve lived with it and enjoyed it a great deal. But playing this new OM, with the 1-13/16” nut, has really driven home just how much nicer that extra 1/16”  is. I may go crazy and put all my 1-¾” SCs for sale, and just keep hunting, or possibly ordering,  replacements (uh, only 1 I think)  with that extra 1/16” –

I think I saw a ‘29 000c (cutaway) recently – that would also be a guitar I’d enjoy trying. If only I could find that with the wider nut –

[tadol]

I’m in!

[tadol]

I don’t wanna hear about disasters cancelling new guitars!  We have a heckuva wind running thru the bay area tonite, and I just spent a half hour searching around the neighborhood for a skylight that blew off. I’m hoping a neighbor might find it tomorrow, and that its intact, and that it didn’t do any serious damage when it came down –

I know – not the same as hurricanes, but theres a good reason I like living on the San Francisco Bay –  😉

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