2003 Santa Cruz Guitar Company Bob Brozman Baritone Natural, Excellent, Original Hard, $3,000.00

SN 4221. Here is an interesting collaboration between Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz Guitar Company and the late great guitarist and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman. The considerable scale length of 27 inches is intended to give piano-like clarity to open tunings, slack key, and deep Baritone tunings. The scale length, combined with the heftier baritone strings from GHS, provides firmer feedback than even a 25 1/4” scale guitar. I don’t personally have the range to put this guitar through its paces but I can report that blues in open D and open G is a whole new ballgame and something melodic in open G, such as Crow River Waltz, is a near religious experience. The guitar veritably chimes. It has a big rich voice with great volume and quicker decay than you might think. This adds to the clarity and note separation. The build is typical Santa Cruz quality with a very fine European Spruce top, mahogany back and sides, herringbone purfling and rosette, ivoroid-bound fingerboard and head headstock. The top and back are ivoroid bound; the back has a fancy zipper center strip. Bracing inside is a rear-X with scalloped tone bars. The body is long but the size at the lower bout is just over 000 size – 15 ¼” – making it very comfortable in the lap. This one is set up with a strap button and medium low action with plenty of saddle. It has an adjustable truss rod as well. The price is well below others available. There is some chipping of the finish around the sound hole and three dark spots in the rim that I attribute to a sound hole humidifier. It has been checked inside about out by my luthier – structurally all is solid. Surprisingly there is no musty small whatsoever. It ships with a high quality TKL case. On consignment.