2012 Santa Cruz PJ Parlor Guitar

What is there to say? A Santa Cruz is a Santa Cruz. These are boutique "factory-make" heavy-hitters. They're precisely-built, well-thought-out, and use high-quality components. Of course they sound amazing. Of course they're objectively good.

This PJ model is like a Martin Size 2 but with a shorter 24" scale length like you'd find on many '20s or '30s "parlor" instruments. It's a 12-fretter and features solid spruce over solid Indian rosewood. It's classy and understated like an old Martin -- with a fun and colorful furniture-trade-style backstrip and crisp, clean binding on all edges.

Unlike a lot of boutique parlor guitars I've seen, this one has held-up near-perfectly since it was built. A lot of high-profile builders lighten their bracing and tops so much (to achieve more warmth and volume) that they change drastically season to season up here in the northeast and can be as finicky as a sports-car to keep playing correctly.

This one is equally-lightly-built but when this one arrived all I had to do was tweak the truss a hair and tweak the saddle just a hair to get it playing perfectly. It already played "near perfect" and with correct action when it arrived after not having been adjusted since it was built.

This guitar also sounds like a million bucks, too. Everyone who's played it has been impressed with the sound coming out of it. It reminded me of when there was a rosewood Froggy Bottom parlor hanging-around the workshop and folks would pick on it and their jaws would drop. That out of this? -- was the expression.

So -- what to say? It's a babied, very-clean ("near-mint" really) instrument that looks like it's had about 15 hours of use. I know it's had a lot more, but it's been taken care-of very well.

Repairs included: mild setup and restring.

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid Indian rosewood

Bracing type: x, scalloped

Bridge: ebony

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 54w-12 lights

Neck shape: medium C/soft V

Board radius: ~12-14"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Scale length: 24"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Body width: 12 1/4"

Body depth: 3 7/8"

Weight: 3 lbs 5 oz

Condition notes: it's dang clean throughout with just a little pickwear around the soundhole and only the lightest scuffing/scratching around the body.

It comes with: its original fancy-pants hard case.