The first letter indicates the location where the instrument was made, and subsequent digits indicate the year the instrument was made. Example: A serial number starting with W17 indicates the guitar was built in Korea, in 2017. See below for location initials. S, US, W = Korea; SI, US (on Premier Series guitars) = Indonesia; C. SPG builds D'Angelico's Standard Series/Excel Series, introduced in 2005. For help dating, see Serial Numbers.

1. Serial Numbers Nero
2. Where Are D'angelico Guitars Made

John D'Angelico (Little Italy, Manhattan, 1905 – Manhattan, September 1, 1964) was a luthier from New York City, noted for his handmade archtopguitars and mandolins. He founded the D'Angelico Guitars company, where other notable luthiers like Jimmy D'Aquisto served as apprentices.

Luthiery[edit]

John D’Angelico was born in 1905 in New York to an Italian-American family, and was apprenticed in 1914 to his great-uncle, Raphael Ciani, who made violins, mandolins, and flat top guitars.^[1][2][3] This apprenticeship would become the basis for construction principles he later incorporated into his archtop guitars.^[4] After Ciani died D'Angelico took over the management of the business, but he didn't like having to supervise the 15 employees. As a result, he left and founded in 1932 D'Angelico Guitars at 40 Kenmare Street in Manhattan's Little Italy.^[5][6] Here he began making guitars initially based on the 16 inch Gibson L-5 and subsequently working on his own designs.

Instrument designs and output[edit]

Initially D'Angelico's guitars were based largely on the 1920s version of the Gibson L-5 with a 16 inch lower bout and 'snakehead' headstock design, but by 1937, he had settled on four main f-hole archtop guitar designs, heavily influenced by the GibsonL-5:^[7][8]

• Style A – 17 inch body. Phased out in the 1940s.
• Style B – 17 inch body. Phased out in the 1940s.
• Excel – 17 inch body
• New Yorker – 18 inch body. Approximately 300 made.^[9]

Through at least the late 1930s, D’Angelico's guitar necks had non-adjustable steel reinforcement. Later models had functional truss rods.^[10] By the late 40s, D'Angelico was building only the Excel and the New Yorker. All New Yorker models featured pearl inlays in the headstock and fingerboards, as well as quadruple bindings.^[11]

All of D’Angelico's guitars were hand-built, and many were customized for specific people, so substantial variation is evident in his output. D’Angelico's shop rarely made more than 30 guitars per year.^[12] In all, it is estimated that he built 1,164 guitars.^[13] D’Angelico also built a few round-hole (as opposed to f-hole) archtops, and a few mandolins.

While D'Angelico's craftsmanship was not always exemplary, the performance of his guitars established him as the premier maker of archtop guitars.^[3] During the late 1930s, when production was at its peak, D'Angelico made approximately 35 instruments per year with the help of only two workers, one of whom was Vincent 'Jimmy' DiSerio.^[3][14][4] His recognition as the 'finest builder of archtop guitars' later brought offers from larger companies, but ultimately he decided to keep his operation under his own name.^[4][14]

During the 1950s, some of the instruments leaving D'Angelico's shop had mixed features, such as an Excel-sized guitar with New Yorker features created for Johnny Smith, or D'Angelico necks custom fitted to bodies customers brought in.^[15] Original D'Angelico guitars are identified by a serial number punched inside the bass f-hole—the serial numbers ranging from 1001 to 2164.^[15]

In 1952 Jimmy D'Aquisto joined the company as an apprentice.^[3]

D'Angelico had a heart attack in 1959 and also parted ways with DiSerio, who left to work at the Favilla guitar company. As a result, he closed the business but soon reopened it after D'Aquisto who was unable to find work, convinced him to do so.^[3] After several more heart attacks and having also suffered from pneumonia John D'Angelico died in 1964 at the age of 59. He had built 1,164 numbered guitars with the last ten finished by D'Aquisto.^[3][16] D'Aquisto then bought the business but a poor business decision lost him the right to the D’Angelico name.^[17]

The D'Angelico Guitars brand has continued under other owners.

Employees[edit]

Some of D'Angelico's employees went on to become craftsmen in their own right. Among them were Jimmy Di Serio, who worked for D'Angelico from 1932–1959, and D'Aquisto who would eventually buy the business from the D'Angelico family. D'Angelico and D'Aquisto are generally regarded as the two greatest archtop guitar makers of the 20th century.^[18]

In 2011, works by D'Angelico and D'Aquisto were included in the 'Guitar Heroes' exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.^[19]

Vincent 'Jimmy' DiSerio, was commissioned by Ralph Patt to modify a GibsonES-150 (six-string archtop hollow-body guitar) to have a wider neck, wider pickup, and eight strings circa 1965; seven strings enabled Patt's major-thirds tuning to have the E-E range of standard tuning, while the eighth string enabled the high A♭.^[20]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

• Peterson, Jonathon (2002). 'Tuning in thirds: A new approach to playing leads to a new kind of guitar'. American Lutherie: The Quarterly Journal of the Guild of American Luthiers. 8222 South Park Avenue, Tacoma WA 98408: USA.: The Guild of American Luthiers. Number 72 (Winter): 36–43. ISSN1041-7176. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2012.CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

References[edit]

1. ^Bonds, Ray (ed.) (2006). 'The illustrated directory of guitars.' Barnes & Noble/Salamander Books, p. 104.
2. ^Wheeler, Tom (1982). American guitars: an illustrated history.' Harper & Row. p. 22.
3. ^ ^abcdefAcoustic Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: Chartwell Books. 2011. pp. 38–42. ISBN978-0-7858-3571-4.
4. ^ ^abcWilliam), Green, Frank W/m (Frank (2008). D'Angelico : John D'Angelico : master guitar builder : what's in a name?. Centerstream. ISBN9781574242171. OCLC191808803.
5. ^Will Levith (January 23, 2015). 'Joe Bonamassa and the Amazing Technicolor D'Angelico Shop'. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
6. ^Teddy Kim (August 22, 2014). 'Rock On! D'Angelico Guitars Is Back in Business in Chelsea'. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
7. ^Bonds, Ray (ed.) (2006). p. 104.
8. ^Achard, Ken (1999). 'The History and Development of the American Guitar.' The Bold Strummer, p. 16.
9. ^Denyer, Ralph (1998). 'The guitar handbook.' Alfred A. Knopf. p. 47.
10. ^Wheeler, Tom (1982). pp. 22-23.
11. ^Achard, Ken (1999). p. 16.
12. ^Bonds, Ray (ed.) (2006). p. 106.
13. ^Wheeler, Tom (1982). pp. 22.
14. ^ ^ab'About | D'Angelico Guitars'. angelicoguitars.com. Retrieved 2017-06-09.
15. ^ ^abAchard, Ken (1999). p. 43.
16. ^'NAMM 2015: Revived D'Angelico guitar brand shows off new acoustics'. January 23, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
17. ^Stern, Stephen (Fall 1995). 'Jimmy D'Aquisto – Luthier Extraordinaire'(PDF). Frontline magazine. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
18. ^'Images from the Lillibridge Gallery'. D'Angelico/D'Aquisto/Gudelsky Workshop. National Music Museum; The University of South Dakota 414 East Clark Street Vermillion, SD 57069. September 8, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
19. ^'Guitar heroes: Legendary craftsmen from Italy to New York, February 9-July 4, 2011'. John D'Angelico. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
20. ^Peterson (2002, p. 37)

External links[edit]

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archtop.com

1933 D'Angelico, First Model Archtop

Status: Forpricing and hold status for this instrument, please check our Instrumentspage here. If this instrument does not appear on the Instrumentspage it has been sold, and is no longer available. Photos and descriptions of Previously Sold instruments may by found here. To be notified of examples of this or any other model in the future, please contact [email protected].

Serial number: 1030, stampedinside back

Body size at lower bout: 16 1/2' Scale length: 24 3/4'. Nut width: 1 11/16' Body depth: 3 1/4'

Finish: Sunburst finish, nitrocellulose lacquer type

Materials: Solid handcarved flame maple back, sides and neck; solid bookmatched handcarved spruce top; mother of pearl block fingerboard inlays; ornate floral peghead inlay, three-ply body and headstock binding, bound fingerboard.

Hardware: All original nickel hardware includes open-back Grover tuners, pickguard support and tailpiece; adjustable compensated ebony bridge; triple-bound bakelite pickguard.

Notes: The instruments of master builder John D'Angelico are widely regarded as representing the pinnacle of the modern luthier's craft. We are pleased therefore to announce the arrival of an instrument from the very beginning of his illustrious career. Stamped with serial number 1030, this would appear to have been completed sometime in mid-1933.

This remarkable instrument dates from DAngelico's earliest days as an independent luthier, and represents the only model he offered in those formative years. It also clearly demonstrates the maestro's earliest influence as well: Gibson's pioneering L-5 archtop guitar. Introduced late in 1922, Lloyd Loar's L-5 was so widely influential that it was copied almost universally by guitar builders great and small, but by none more successfully than John D'Angelico.

This earliest of D'Angelico's offerings precedes the model names that made him famous. Before the Excel and New Yorker, before the Style A, B and Special, if you went to the little shop on Kenmare St. for a guitar, this is what you got. And the young luthier from Little Italy didn't waste time reinventing the wheel: from the tapered 'snakehead' headstock to the pointed fingerboard finial, this guitar is an unabashed tribute to the Gibson original, right down to the pickguard, block inlays, and the formal 'Cremona' style sunburst.

The similarity extends under the hood as well. The bracing, scale length, nut width, and body depth all mirror the L-5 closely: D'Angelico's customizations were limited to a slightly increased body width, and the graceful floral peghead inlay and banner logo. But while Gretsch and others were content to ape Gibson's cosmetics, D'Angelico had an ace up his sleeve. Blessed with a background in violin making, he would have readily understood the vital process of tap-tuning the top and back plates of this new guitar design, an advantage few of his contemporaries would have grasped.

While most of his creations were sold directly to individual customers, D'Angelico's handwritten ledger shows that a number of his guitars were commissioned by retailers like Gravois Music and Silver and Horlund. And three of D'Angelico's earliest instruments were built for Selmer, famed retailer of band instruments, and the early Maccaferri style gypsy guitars. These latter all bear the Selmer logo, rather than D'Angelico, in the headstock banner: one of which, #1062 from May of 1934, is shown here. This intriguing guitar, however, shows no engraving in the headstock banner at all: the pearl is completely blank. Its purchaser is not listed in the early ledgers, so we have no idea who might have commissioned it originally, but it remains the only D'Angelico guitar we've seen with its banner still unengraved.

Well played and well maintained, the guitar remains in fine shape, with back, sides and neck hand carved from handsomely figured tiger flame maple, and the bookmatched quartersawn spruce top carved to very fine tolerances. The fingerboard is fashioned from dark clear ebony, inlaid with clear mother-of-pearl. The original dark sunburst finish shows some normal playwear, with some scattered nicks and scratches confined mostly to the upper lacquer. A short crack on the bass side upper bout, and another running from the tailpiece under the pickguard have soundly resealed and cleated. Some thumbwear on the neck appears to be covered with some older clear lacquer, which may extend to the back and sides as well. The multi-ply binding on the body appears original, tight, and in excellent condition, as is the original bound black pickguard. Interestingly, the soundholes are bound with a remarkable 5 plies, extravagant on any guitar, and the binding on the neck was installed without side dots. The first fret inlay is uncommon on these earliest examples as well, and the maker's original registration dots are found on the back near the heel and endblock, as usual in these instruments.

Serial Numbers Nero

The original gold Grover G-30 tuners are in fine working order, and the tailpiece is an original by Grover as well, seen only on the earliest D'Angelico archtops. Finally the bridge contains a bone insert, an extremely rare feature on a D'Angelico's instrument. We have re-created this unique design, installed it on the original ebony base, and included the original saddle in the case. The neck has a solid gentle 'C' profile that is neither clubby nor veed, and quite comfy in the hand. The fingerboard is straight, and the action is smooth and low over a fresh high-precision setup. The voice is warm and woody, with excellent projection and a full, throaty resonance.

D'Angelico did not designate his archtops with specific model names until late 1934 or '35, at which time he upsized the bodies to the 17' dimension they retained throughout the rest of his career. Accordingly, these early 16' guitars are the rarest of all D'Angelico archtops, built in small numbers only in the first two years of production. Owned for decades by a gentleman named Louis Fanizzi, the instrument has been kept in his family since his passing over three decades ago. Bearing one of the serial numbers missing in the pages of D'Angelico's earliest ledger, this remarkable instrument has been previously unknown outside the family until now.

Combining unparalleled musicality, rarity and historic importance, this master creation is an outstanding instrument at the very dawn of the modern archtop guitar. One only: call now.

Setup: The frets have been precision leveled, crowned and polished as necessary; bridge height adjusted; bridge compensation set; string slots at nut and bridge inspected; bridge foot contour inspected; bridge radius inspected; bridgewheels and tuners lubricated; fingerboard and bridge oiled; body and neck cleaned and hand polished.

This instrument is strung with medium gauge bronze strings (.013-.056). The guitar will accommodate lighter or heavier gauge strings, according to preference. String action is set at 4/64' to 5/64' at the 12th fret, with moderate relief for acoustic playing with medium strings. The action may be lowered or raised to your requirements with the adjustable bridge.

Case: Deluxe arched black plush lined hardshell case.

Where Are D'angelico Guitars Made

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