John Cruz has been handcrafting guitars for nearly 40 years and is synonymous with “Master Builder”. Having built for many of the world's greatest guitarists,
he is most closely associated with recreating Stevie Ray Vaughan's famous “Number One”, Jeff Beck's Yardbirds guitar, Yngwie Malmsteen's “Duck” and
John Mayer's “Black1”. However, as a lifelong fan of Thin Lizzy, Cruz's personal favorite was replicating Gary Moore's Fiesta Red guitar.
In addition to these iconic instruments, Cruz has built for Doug Aldrich of Dio and Whitesnake, Dave Amato and Bruce Hall of REO Speedwagon, Jeff Beck, Mick Mars of
Mötley Crüe, John Mayer, Duff McKagan and Slash of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, Carlos Santana, Ike Turner, Jimmie Vaughan, Bono
Vox of U2 and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith.
Perhaps most importantly, Cruz's contributions to the art of luthiery, include massive inroads regarding the guitar aging, or distressing, process, and quality assurance.
Both of these specialties he had to learn, develop and ultimately master before teaching them to builders. Currently, many techniques he created are practiced in custom
shops throughout the world.