The Chetboard

D'Angelico is coming back this year. Chet is the first artist being named on their website.

D'Angelico website

I'm not comfortable with the idea

To me, D'Angelico means handmade, carved top, solid wood guitars. I know he renecked some "laminated" guitars but John D'Angelico built his guitars by hand.

The "new" ones are D'Angelico only cosmetically. They're nice guitars I suppose but they are not the crafted things we associate with John D.

Paul had a photo of one of the newer ones in the Guitar Gallery on his web site. I don't know if he played it or not, though. I don't remember seeing him with it.
Ray

http://www.studio9kc.co.uk/paul/d'angel ... t%201.html

Oops. I found a link to some D'Angelico players and Paul is posing with one of the newer ones.

http://dangelico.vestax.com/artists/

I played one of the D'angelico guitars that Paul modded like Chet's guitar. It was at Gary Gilbert's shop in Arrington 6 or 7 years ago. Gary said that Paul wanted him to take of a bridge plate from the inside of the guitar. I asked Paul about it, and he said it opened up the guitar's sound.

It was a nice guitar....though not built by John D' (or by Jimmy D from the late 50's on....).

I'm like Paul in a few ways, I never cared 'where' a guitar was made as long as it was a top-notch player. Some of these overseas guitars will amaze you at how well they are put together these days! Some of the better names are NOT junk anymore, they are real quality. I have a 2010 D'Angelico Excel thin-line EX-SS. Its about the size of a Les Paul and even though they advertised the guitar as 1 11/16" at the nut, I got one that measures 1.73" (its almost 1 3/4") Fancy split-block MOP inlays with a lot of color (like a Super 400), ebony fretboard , triple binding on the body and pickguard, bound F-holes, tiger stripe top, back and sides,,,just a knock-out AND its sounds great,,,more like a Gretsch than a Gibson. Kent Armstrong pickups that I like better than the Gibson humbuckers,,,these are really "thick" sounding, it has got some real tone, a quality sound. A heck of a guitar!

All that said, this is NOT a hand made John D. quality instrument but its not meant to be and its NOT priced to be either. I don't know how these new 2013 D'Angelicos will be but I'll bet they will be a quality guitar and if they are priced competitively they should be fairly good sellers.

Bottom line with me is: I still prefer the Gretsch CG/NC/HOF as my main guitar but if you like a little different sound and a little different "animal", these D'Angelicos are something to look at. They have a certain beauty to them that no other guitar possesses. OK,,,that's my .02 cents worth and I'll go back to my room!

Gayle Moseley