D'Angelico Style A Model Arch Top Acoustic Guitar (1942), made in New York, NY, sunburst lacquer finish, flame maple back, sides and neck, spruce top, ebony fingerboard, original brown alligator hard shell case.
This is a spectacularly well preserved example of an original John D'Angelico instrument, unaltered and apparently not heavily used since 1942. The Style A was far from D'Angelico's most elaborate guitar creation, but each was still individually built with all the care and beauty that characterizes the purely handmade D'Angelico instruments. This Style A is a 17 3/8" body archtop guitar from the period that saw the full flowering of D'Angelico's talents as a guitar maker. It is registered in the D'Angelico ledgers as being sold in late July of 1942 to Gravois Music in St. Louis, who received a steady supply of John's guitars for resale in the 1930's and '40's. It is a fairly late example of a Style A, built just a few years before the A and B models were phased out of production on Kenmare Street to allow John to concentrate on the top of the line Excel and New Yorker, which sold for somewhat higher prices so brought more profit to the shop.
Despite its lower position in the line, the Style A is built with the highest-grade materials throughout. The top and back are triple bound and finished in a beautiful deep reddish sunburst, as are the sides and neck. There is a superb and very attractive curl figure to the maple throughout. The flared peghead is single-bound and faced in ebony. This bears a simpler design than the Excel and New Yorker headstocks, with only an inlayed "D'Angelico New York" logo with a pearl block engraved "Style A". The ebony fingerboard is single bound with large pearl block inlay. The neck is a single piece of curly maple. The tailpiece is an unusual and fairly elaborate trapeze seen only on the occasional guitar from this early wartime period. The bridge is adjustable ebony with the typical slanted but not compensated saddle. The top is parallel braced, as is common with earlier D'Angelicos. The tone of this guitar is incisive but with and overriding sweetness and balance that is the hallmark of this maker's work. Compared to more expensive and ornate D'Angelicos, this could be described as more of a "player's" guitar-certainly that is what it was built for, and more than sixty years later it is still true.
Overall length is 41 3/4 in. (106 cm.), 17 3/8 in. (44.1 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.). Very fine original condition overall; no major damage, repair or alteration. There are some small wear marks to the finish, and a few small scratches to the top appear to have been touched up long ago. The original wide, low frets are intact and very playable; this guitar is still waiting for its big gig! Includes an excellent original Lifton HSC with brown alligator grain covering. Absolutely an exceptional find in a hand-made guitar of this era. Excellent Condition.
