This is an excellent condition 2007 custom D 12 fret from Santa Cruz built with premium master grade tonewoods. Beautiful highly Flamed Mahogany make up the back and sides. This wood is rare with the perfectly tight flamed figuring, especially for the size of a D 12 Fret. The top is an old set of highly bearclawed Italian Alpine Spruce top from Richard Hoover’s private stash with a custom tinted lacquer that changes depending on the angle you look at it at. Other custom features like Cocobolo top purfling and rosette and Flamed Maple binding give it a wonderful unique look. It has a huge balanced sound from the lightest touch, but also with the meat for the heavy handed strumming and flatpicking of the most discerning flatpicker. Warm lows and mids with crisp and vibrant highs, you feel the fibration in your chest when you play it.
Even though it’s a D 12 Fret dreadnought, it’s very comfortable to play. The thinner body ranges from 3 1/4″ depth at the neck to 4 3/8″ at the bottom. This guitar was sold new originally by us, and sometimes an amazing instrument just happens to comes back. We all remember this one clearly, and like this time, we get to experience this amazing tone box all over again. No issues what so ever, just a couple of small dings on the headstock, but that’s it. It was very well taken care of by the original and has little to no fret wear even.
About the D 12 Fret
The Santa Cruz 12 fret dreadnought was commissioned to showcase legendary guitarist and first call session ace Norman Blake. They wanted to highlight his playing style by adding clarity and sustain for an articulate response to the flat pick. Building a guitar with 12 frets clear of the body creates more air volume, which allows greater amplitude and sustain. The hand tuned X-bracing insures increased bass response, while the top voicing and 4-1/4 inch sound hole size combine to achieve great presence in all ranges. This eliminates the tendency of the traditional dreadnought towards boominess at the expense of midrange and treble. The D 12’s sheer volume, complexity and incredible sustain make it a truly inspiring stage partner.
