More Spectacular new Santa Cruz Custom OM's

[Organic Sounds Select Guitars]

This one is just fantastic - the clarity and richness is hard to believe - so good!

Santa Cruz Custom OM (NEW) - details here: https://organicsoundsguitars.com/col...-blackwood-new
Top wood: "San Lorenzo" Sinker Redwood
Body wood: African Blackwood
Bindings: Koa
Scale Length: 25.375"
Nut Width: 1 3/4"
Spacing at Saddle: 2 3/16"

In this video, Prawit (our in house guitar teacher) really brings out the best from this great instrument:

[mdvaden]

Looks nice sounds very good.

Does the maker do anything special in the neck or just standard truss rods?

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[Organic Sounds Select Guitars]

Originally Posted by mdvaden

Looks nice sounds very good.

Does the maker do anything special in the neck or just standard truss rods?

...

Hi mdvaden! I apologize for the delay in answering your question. Santa Cruz uses a dovetail neck joint, a mahogany neck and a two way truss rod for relief adjustments. I have copied these two Q & A's from Santa Cruz's website. I hope that these are helpful.

Larry


Q: Why does SCGC use a dovetail jointed neck instead of a bolt-on neck?
A: Dovetail joint is an integral connection between the neck and the body. The counterpart is a bolt-on neck. Both function mechanically well – bolt-on is easier, advantageous to the manufacturer as it requires less skill, is cheap to do and takes less time. They say it is a great advantage to the end user as the neck can come off quickly for repair, and that you have to rip a guitar apart to take off a dovetail jointed neck, but this is not so. If a dovetail neck wasn’t superior sonically, we wouldn’t do it. We voice and tune our instruments to be very responsive. The dovetail jointed neck allows us subtle degrees of control to give the guitar the optimal presence to sound its best… it’s like a laser beam as opposed to a flood light, or clean, clear and precise vs. open, airy, friendly and blended. A trick that we use to control getting these different sounds is to either allow vibration from the strings/body to chimney up the neck or to block it. This is done by manipulating the density of the wood in the neck, using heavier gears or a larger peghead, which blocks vibration up the neck and gives guitar more focus. The opposite is a slotted peghead, light open back gears and less dense wood in the neck; this allows vibration and gives a more open, airy ambience. The Dovetail neck facilitates that, allows focus or vibration freely, whereas the bolt-on neck is already adding mass in addition to the wood and doesn’t allow for this trick. By design, the dovetail joint is accessible – simply by removing the fret above the body joint towards the sound hole, we can drill a hole and inject steam into it, which melts the glue and allows for easy removal for repair. A dovetail neck, by nature, is strong enough to hold string tension… just a little glue is used, so facilitating the repair is a straightforward process. We take extra time, expertise and money to make these necks, as it is extremely beneficial to the customer.

Q: What effect will neck design (mass) and fret size have on the sound of the guitar?
A: We all love the feel of a well proportioned neck. It enhances the playability and enjoyment of our guitars. The mass of the neck will indeed affect the tone of your instrument. Whether this is a positive or negative influence depends on your taste in tone. When I design a guitar for Jazz applications I want a precise tone with excellent projection to showcase the players single note leads or rapid chord comping. One of the factors to facilitate this is to increase neck mass. This can be done with the use of a heavier tuning machine in a larger headstock or with a denser neck wood. The effect is to prevent vibrations from chimney-ing up the neck and dissipating. The results are more efficient transfer of string energy to air movement through the sound hole, thus increasing projection. In the case of a guitar designed to have vintage appeal or a roundness, warmth, and openness of tone we benefit from a lighter weight headstock and tuning machines. In this instrument, the vibrations transferred to the neck enhance the qualities of this style of guitar by making it more forgiving and less precise. One caveat, guitars with mechanically fastened, bolt-on necks instead of the traditional dovetail joint won’t benefit as much from this intricate technique. By considering these factors you should be able to get both the tone and the right neck in the same guitar. Technically, jumbo frets would add mass to the neck and affect the sound as mentioned above. Realistically, this would be a small contribution to the equation. More important would be the fret height. The higher the fret, the steeper the angle when depressed, creating more downward pressure and positive contact of string to fret, resulting in clearer tone and increased amplitude.

[Organic Sounds Select Guitars]

Hi folks. I received a request to play some blues on this guitar in standard tuning. So here it is, plus a video I had made previously in DADGAD tuning.


Standard tuning blues:





DADGAD tuning:

[joeld]

A beautiful guitar with beautiful tone, and beautiful playing! The San Lorenzo River runs through the ancient Redwood forests and down through Santa Cruz past the guitar manufactory on its way to the ocean. You can walk to the river and frolic in the crystal- clear water among fallen Redwood trunks from yore. Good fishing too!

[Organic Sounds Select Guitars]

Originally Posted by joeld

A beautiful guitar with beautiful tone, and beautiful playing! The San Lorenzo River runs through the ancient Redwood forests and down through Santa Cruz past the guitar manufactory on its way to the ocean. You can walk to the river and frolic in the crystal- clear water among fallen Redwood trunks from yore. Good fishing too!

Thanks Joeld!

You are correct about the San Lorenzo River. I lived for 11 years in the town of Felton, less than 100 yards from that river. Felton is a little mountain town in the redwoods just north of Santa Cruz. This guitar has a lot of meaning to me for that reason - it will make someone very happy! I really appreciate your comment!

[Organic Sounds Select Guitars]

This one is a Santa Cruz Custom OM with a Moon Spruce top and Indian Rosewood back and sides. Flamed koa bindings completes the look!

You can find all details for this guitar here: https://organicsoundsguitars.com/col...n-rosewood-new

You can peruse our selection of Santa Cruz guitars for sale here: https://organicsoundsguitars.com/col...guitar-company

Scale length: 25.375"
Nut width: 1 3/4"
Spacing at saddle: 2 3/16"