“THESE FOUR GUITARS represent a lot,” Richard Hoover explains. “Everything that has happened to me, everything I believe in, the people with whom I have been associated, et cetera. I want to promote certain concepts, because there is too much bias against them.”
Whether he’s dispelling myths about wood, championing small body styles or epitomizing boutique success without compromising ethics, Hoover is a wellspring of know-how. His top passion topics include acoustic physics, the rich history of how we got to today’s guitars and how to manifest a brighter future with better guitars for everyone. The captain and his elite crew are leading by example and pouring lifetimes of experience into the Vault Series, from which he will display four models — the D 7882, H13 1854, FF 311 and OM 6134 — in the Santa Cruz Guitar Company’s booth (#5102) at the 2024 NAMM show.
“In the beginning, guitars were made out of rosewood, mahogany and maybe maple,” Hoover notes. Since then, he explains, we’ve come to embrace a wide variety of species, from koa to walnut, and Hoover remains a key catalyst for progress. GP listened at length to the bearded guru with the self-described “wood problem” in his most sacred space: the vault where wooden treasure is kept at his headquarters in Santa Cruz, California.
Hoover has accumulated a bounty of top-shelf tonewood booty, sustainably resourced via deep-root connections with fellow wood enthusiasts around the globe. Imagine talking to Willie Wonka in the cocoa vault at the chocolate factory. Like a
