1961 D’angelico excel

Guitarist follows the trail of a 1961 D’Angelico Excel to Vintage ‘n’ Rare Guitars in Bath to discover more about these extraordinary guitars, inspired by the culture of their maker’s New York home

John D’Angelico was born in New York in 1905 and was something of a child prodigy. Instrument building was in his blood, and at the tender age of nine he became apprentice to his grand-uncle, Raphael Ciani, assisting in the running of Ciani’s flat-top guitar, violin and mandolin workshop. While cutting his teeth in the production of these popular traditional folk instruments, a new wave of youth culture and music had been spreading across New York. Following the end of World War I, the ‘Roaring Twenties’ – a rejection of the old values that had dragged America down into war – stimulated the jazz music scene that was bubbling under New York’s surface. Times were changing fast, with guitarists seeking out the volume and projection of f-hole archtop guitars in order to be heard.

Following Ciani’s death, D’Angelico became the workshop’s supervisor before going on to establish his own, more progressive, business in 1932 in his native Little Italy on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The genesis of the f-hole archtop is generally credited to sound engineer and luthier Lloyd Loar with the release of the Gibson L-5 around a decade earlier in 1922 (following on from Orville Gibson’s arched top design, as seen on early versions of small-bodied, round-soundhole Gibson acoustic guitars such as the L-1 and L-2, released in 1902). The initial efforts of D’Angelico are widely recognised as being strongly influenced by the Gibson L-5, but within a few years, D’Angelico had found his niche, becoming an established independent luthier with a steady flow of custom orders from exacting jazz players. His guitars were – although priced similarly to high-end Gibson archtops at the time – well noted for their outstanding tone, attention to detail, quality of materials and notably skilful construction.

Throughout its existence, the D’Angelico workshop completed only one or two guitars per week on average – a very small number of instruments when compared with the 1930s jazzbox market leaders, Gibson. But the ethos of D’Angelico was, without the limitations of mass production, based in quality of tone with a more personal touch. Over time they began to come into their own using high-grade tonewoods, along with ever more elaborate designs.

Paul Tucker of Vintage ‘n’ Rare Guitars explains: “Vintage D’Angelicos are one of the most expensive archtops going these days. John D’Angelico was building relatively few guitars, so he could afford to be a bit more picky with the materials that he was buying.” Indeed, one might be hardpressed to find more exquisitely figured tonewood than this D’Angelico’s beautifully flamed maple one-piece neck, two-piece chevron back and three-inch deep sides. It’s easy on the eye, to say the least, and when graded by today’s standards, it could easily fall into the ‘AAAA’ bracket.

Ryan Taylor, an independent luthier who is well versed in the maintenance and repair of quality vintage instruments, had the pleasure of tweaking this incredible example into perfection after it had been cased up for many a year: “Those guys seemed to be getting some extraordinary

“D’Angelico was building relatively few guitars, so he could afford to be more picky with the materials” Paul tucker