{"id":5345,"date":"2016-07-21T10:03:57","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T09:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.guitarvillage.co.uk\/?p=858"},"modified":"2022-06-14T12:07:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T12:07:17","slug":"lesser-known-gems-dangelico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/lesser-known-gems-dangelico","title":{"rendered":"Lesser Known Gems: DAngelico"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a bewildering number of guitar manufacturers producing great instruments for all styles and budgets. It’s easy to just narrow your focus\u00a0on the giant\u00a0well-known brands but you might well be missing out on a better quality, better suited guitar.<\/p>\n

In the world of semi-hollow jazz and rock guitars, there is a great American company with a long and illustrious history that you cannot afford to overlook…<\/p>\n

D’Angelico\"history\"<\/strong><\/h5>\n

At the age of only nine years old,\u00a0John D’Angelico became an apprentice to his grand uncle Raphael Ciani, an expert violin,\u00a0mandolin and flattop maker. As a result, like other\u00a0legendary archtop manufacturers, the mandolin was hugely influential\u00a0in the design of his guitars. John D’Angelico focused on quality rather than quantity\u00a0when crafting\u00a0these beautiful instruments\u00a0from his small but adequate shop at 40 Kenmare Street in New York’s Little Italy district – making approximately 35 instruments per year. His\u00a0reputation for building fine hand-crafted archtops allowed John D’Angelico to expand his operation and employ a hand full of employees. In the later years one of these was James D’Aquisto who was offered an apprenticeship aged just seventeen. Under D’Angelico’s mentorship,\u00a0James D’Aquisto became\u00a0regarded as\u00a0one of the finest archtop luthiers in the world.
\nDuring the cold winter of 1964 John D’Angelico passed away from a heart attack aged only 59 having made 1164 instruments. Each one took around 18-24 months to build and are individual\u00a0works of art with tone to match\u00a0which is why\u00a0they are\u00a0regarded as one of the most sought after vintage archtops money can buy.<\/p>\n

Art Deco Styling<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"DAngelico_blog_detail\"<\/p>\n

During the nineteen-thirties, jazz was becoming ever more\u00a0popular and\u00a0the demand for “f-hole” archtop instruments was\u00a0growing. Many manufacturers were copying each others traditional designs but D’Angelico opted for a\u00a0unique Art Deco style. When John D’Angelico was in his twenties, French Art Deco was becoming popular particularly in American architecture\u00a0with buildings such as\u00a0the Chrysler and Empire State changing the New York skyline.\u00a0This influence can be seen in the\u00a0‘skyscraper’ truss rod covers, Empire State Building inspired headstock logos, and their stair-step bridge tailpieces and scratch plates.<\/p>\n

\"pt_uniforms45cover_EL\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n

\"D'Angelico<\/p>\n

D’Angelico president, Steve Pisani with Guitar Village owner, Derek Eyre-Walker<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Rebirth<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In his relatively short career, John D’Angelico created a legacy with his stylishly unique archtops. Most serious collectors and\u00a0players are aware of D’Angelico guitars – in particular the huge price tag some of those original instruments have fetched – an original New Yorker may set you back in excess of\u00a0\u00a330,000!<\/p>\n

In 2011 a major exhibition in New York’s Metropolitan Museum featuring some of these rare originals brought the D’Angelico brand back into the public eye re-igniting\u00a0an interest in these beautiful instruments. Since then the company has been working hard put D’Angelico back on map. As Steve Pisani (current president of D’Angelico Guitars) says,<\/p>\n

“We are proud to have grown the brand immensely in the past five years, and remain committed to bringing the finest quality instruments at affordable prices to D’Angelico enthusiasts worldwide.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This focus is\u00a0coupled with a great new range of quality models for a broad spectrum of players and styles. D’Angelico are in it for the long haul!<\/p>\n

The Current D’Angelico Range<\/strong><\/h5>\n

D’Angelico offer a range of models in\u00a0The Standard,\u00a0Masterbuilt,\u00a0Acoustic and Bass series.<\/p>\n

The Standard series are handcrafted in Korea and include semi-hollow and solid-body models like the EX-DC, EX-SS, EX-DH, EX-175, EX-Style B, EXL-1 and EX-59. These instruments currently retail between a \u00a31000-\u00a31500 and include a hardshell case.<\/p>\n

D’Angelico Masterbuilt series have a team of master-craftsmen in California who painstakingly and faithfully recreate some of the original models like the legendary New Yorker, Excel,\u00a0Style A and B. D’Angelico will actually source original D’Angelico intruments from the thirties and forties and have an MRI scan carried out\u00a0on the guitar resulting in an exact replica of the original instrument. This\u00a0series currently retails\u00a0between \u00a36000-\u00a38000.<\/p>\n

As well as offering traditional models like the EXL-1A and EX-63 in the acoustic series, D’Angelico offer a comprehensive range of flat top cutaway electro-acoustics in various body sizes even including an electro-acoustic bass.<\/p>\n

And finally there are a couple of models available in the D’Angelico bass series, the EX-Bass which is a semi-hollow archtop four-string and the EX-SD Bass a solid four-string instrument\u00a0with a chambered body.<\/p>\n

\"StevePisani\"<\/p>\n

Seeing these prestigious\u00a0instruments displayed in our beautiful\u00a0fifteen century building\u00a0is a sight to behold! Guitar Village are proud to stock these\u00a0guitars and help carry on the legacy created by John D’Angelico, seeing the brand evolve and go from strength to strength.<\/p>\n

“It doesn\u2019t stop with the products of course. It\u2019s our dealers who make that extra difference and with Guitar Village we struck gold. A highly dedicated, knowledgeable team that is very much in love with our guitars. We can\u2019t ask for more.”<\/em> – Steve Pisani<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"DAngelico_staff+Steve-Pisani_web\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

D’Angelico links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

WEBSITE<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0FACEBOOK<\/a><\/p>\n

TWITTER<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0INSTAGRAM<\/a><\/p>\n

GOOGLE+<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to view our stock\u00a0of D’Angelico guitars at Guitar Village
\n<\/a>More on the way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a bewildering number of guitar manufacturers producing great instruments for all styles and budgets. It’s easy to just narrow your focus\u00a0on the giant\u00a0well-known brands but you might well be missing out on a better quality, better suited guitar. In the world of semi-hollow jazz and rock guitars, there is a great American company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67140,"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5345\/revisions\/67140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarvillage.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}