Santa Cruz Tony Rice

Mark Karan demonstrates the early 2000s Santa Cruz he bought during his tenure in Bob Weir’s RatDog.

February 12, 2025

San Francisco Bay Area guitarist Mark Karan has been a mainstay of California’s roots and rock music scene for decades. Best known for his association with the extended Grateful Dead family, Mark was a member of Bob Weir’s RatDog, the Other Ones, Phil Lesh and Friends, and Mickey Heart’s Planet Drum, but he has also worked with Huey Lewis, Dave Mason, the Rembrandts, and many others. He currently leads his own band (Mark Karan’s Buds), and tours with the Third Mind (featuring Dave Alvin), the Gilmour Project, and Live Dead and Brothers. Mark recently stopped by the Peghead Nation video studio to demo his main gigging acoustic guitar, a Santa Cruz Tony Rice signature model built in the early 2000s.

Mark purchased his Santa Cruz from Bay Area instrument dealer Steve Swan while he was a member of RatDog. He had been playing a 1960s Gibson Dove, but looking for something a little more “lively” and “refined.” Mark was able to choose the guitar through an unusual procedure. “Steve started this process of bringing a half-dozen guitars to my home and sitting there with me while I went through six different guitars and picked my favorite two. Then he would leave me with those two guitars for a week to explore, and come back the next week with six new guitars to try out. We did this for six weeks, so I tried out 36 guitars. The search was for something chunky and warm, but lively.” The menu of instruments that Steve presented included both new and vintage guitars by many makers, but Mark felt that the Santa Cruz Tony Rice suited him best.

Santa Cruz has offered several variations on the Tony Rice signature model, which is patterned after Tony’s 1935 Martin D-28, formerly owned by Clarence White. The guitar’s most distinctive feature is the enlarged soundhole, and while some models are built with Brazilian rosewood, Mark’s guitar has Indian rosewood back and sides and a bear-claw spruce top.

Several years of touring have left an impact on the guitar, most visibly in several finish cracks in the top’s lower bout area. “They came from all the festival dates we did with RatDog,” Mark explains. “We’d be in the midwest or the south somewhere, and all the guitars would be out there sitting in the hot sun, and the beautiful old-school nitro finish didn’t like that.” Mark currently has a Sunrise pickup installed in the guitar’s soundhole, and he finds that this setup works well in loud band settings.

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