50 year anniversary of Santa Cruz guitars in the Bay Area

50 year anniversary of Santa Cruz guitars in the Bay Area

Santa Cruz Guitar Company celebrates its 50th anniversary

By Lynda Carson - September 1, 2026

Founded in 1976, there is no doubt that people love their Santa Cruz guitars, and recently the Santa Cruz Guitar Company (SCGC) has been celebrating its 50th anniversary. Congratulations to Richard Hoover and the guitar makers at SCGC.

The SCGC may not have been giving guitars away to Guitars for VETS, or known for spearheading fund raising events for the homeless in Santa Cruz, or for making political campaign contributions to the greedy politicians. However, in all fairness they have been known for making some very nice guitars, while trying to use woods for their guitars that are not an endangered species. Additionally, they have provided jobs for numerous Roberto Venn School of Luthiery graduates, which is very important to the struggling luthiers/guitar builders, and their future. This is much better than working in a small music store sweatshop, repairing stringed instruments for a living.

Presently, the Santa Cruz Guitar Company is located in a 14,000 sq ft location at 151 Harvey West BLVD C, in Santa Cruz, CA, in a location that may be worth as much as $10,165,557.

Recently, Richard Hoover, and the luthiers (guitar builders) at the Santa Cruz Guitar Company (SCGC) in Santa Cruz, CA, have been celebrating its 50th anniversary. Makers of some great guitars, some SCGC guitars have become collectible to guitarists and collectors across the nation, and internationally.

Recently on the website for SCGC, they announced a September 19, 2026 50th Anniversary Concert, in Santa Cruz, featuring performances by The Brothers Comatose, James Nash, Hustle Souls, Ron Artis II, and Catfish Keith, hosted by Nick Forster. Additionally , there will a pre-show block party, featuring SambaDá, SONiA, Shane Hall, Steve Palazzo, Adam Traum, Diggin Trails, Colin Cotter and Sumaia Jackson, Ben Torres, and Matt Weir as M.C.

Richard Hoover co-founded SCGC with his original partners in 1976, and they had a vision to make heir-loom quality guitars, based on the traditions of violin lutherie. Since then, SCGC has been making some nice guitars for the past 50 years.

That’s right. Some of the guitar builders at SCGC are graduates of the Roberto Venn School of Luthier, in Phoenix, AZ, which celebrated its 50th year anniversary in 2025.

There is a lot of information on the website for the SCGC through the years, but there has not been a lot of information regarding the price of their guitars which is very important to guitarists looking to buy one of their guitars. Perhaps the lack of information is because SCGC has used various dealerships around the country, and internationally through the years that have been jacking up the price of their guitars to make a living. All that SCGC could do was to suggest what the retail price should be for their guitars on its website. But even that did not last very long, and after a few years they even stopped posting the suggested retail price of their guitars on their ever changing website.

A little bit of history about SCGC, that most people are not aware of.

In June 1988, the Santa Cruz Guitar Company (SCGC) was located at 328 Ingalls St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060. Phone (408) 425-0999 . Fax (408) 425-3604. email: scgc [at] cruzio.com. They had 12 production employees at the time.

Their guitars may have seemed a bit pricey at the time. Some SCGC new guitar prices in June 1988. According to records with SCGC, they were asking: Archtop 16” $10,500; Archtop 17” $10,500; Archtop 18” $14,000; D model $2,500; Tony Rice $3,000; Tony Rice Professional $6,940; Vintage Artist $3,100; Janis Ian $3,675; and Bob Brozman Baritone went for for $4,300.

In contrast, Here are some of their new prices listed in February 2003. Archtop 16” $10,500; Archtop 17” $10,950; Archtop 18” $14,000; D model $2,500; Tony Rice $3,450; Tony Rice Professional $7,500; Janis Ian $4,22; and a Bob Brozman Baritone guitar went for for $4,300.

After 2003, it became a bit more difficult to track down the new guitar prices of SCGC.

However, in May of 2008, according some of the available records for some new SCGC guitars, the asking price of an 00 acoustic guitar was $3,629. A VJ Custom was $5,395. And a D 03 was $3,495. An OM KOA Custom went for $5,675. An SCGC Archtop was going for $15,000. The SCGC OM Brazilian Custom went for $8,795. An SCGC Style 1 Brazilian went for $10,999, and a SCGC Tony Rice guitar was going for $4,635.

Some guitar prices for a few new Santa Cruz guitars in 2021. A Tony Rice standard went for $7,100. A Tony Rice Pro guitar went for $13,130. A Santa Cruz custom Baritone went for $9,600. The Santa Cruz D-12 went for $6,975, and a Santa Cruz Vintage Artist went for $6,345.

In 2026, some of the SCGC guitars seem very pricey compared to their guitars back in 1998. I am not certain that these are all new guitars, but I believe they are. A Santa Cruz 000 Custom is going for $10,800. The 1934 OM guitar is going for $19,800. A 1929 000 is going for $8,400. An OM Custom is going for $10,250. The OM Grand Custom is going for $12,500. A RS Custom is going for $10,500, and a OM Cutaway goes for $11,000.

Things got very pricey when Dream Guitars started selling used SCGC guitars, and the prices really skyrocketed. Presently, Dream Guitars is asking $18,720 for a used 1972 Santa Cruz VA ‘The Tree’ guitar. For a 2004 Santa Cruz D-12 fret guitar, they want $15,600. For a 2020 Santa Cruz OM, Old Growth Brazilian rosewood guitar, they want $16,120, and they want $10,920 for a 2020 SC H13, all KOA guitar.

However, Down Home Guitars in Santa Cruz, has such pricey SCGC guitars, they almost make Dream Guitars appear reasonable.

Presently, the crooks at Guitar Center want $8,999 for a used 2006 Tony Rice Signature guitar, and they have the nerve to say this product is completely functional and shows some signs of use. It may have surface scratches and/or dings and dents. And they want $8,999 for a used Santa Cruz L00 Custom KOA guitar No mention of what year it was built. They want $8,749 for a used Santa Cruz 1934 Old Growth guitar without mentioning what year it was built in.

As SCGC celebrate its 50th year anniversary, it appears that SCGC guitars have become so expensive through the years since 1988, low-income people will never be able to afford one.

Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs are affecting musicians and luthiers/guitar builders, https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/08/30/18888331.php .

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

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