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I am delighted to share some photos that John sent me after he strung up my Rhapsody today. I commissioned this guitar in October 2016. I couldn’t be more pleased visually. More importantly, John told me:
“The guitar sounds really great..I am super happy with her as she exceeded my expectations. The ebony bridge, shorter scale, smaller soundhole all work really nice together..Really nice warm tone with killer sustain, sweet trebles and no wolf tones...”
As a reminder, John’s Rhapsody is a 16” Carpathian Spruce flat top with a carved East Indian Rosewood back. John used a 25” scale, a 1-3/4” nut width with 2-3/16” string spacing for mine. While being a larger body size, to promote a balanced timbre, it is not very deep being 3-1/2” at the neck block tapering to 4” at the end-block.
Here it is front and back. At my request, John used one of his “Artisan” archtop headstock shape for my guitar. We tried to combine a jazz archtop aesthetic (sunburst, headstock with stylized torch inlay) with some elements traditional flat tops (like a style 40 purflings). The 20 year old carved EIR back looks beautiful and finishing mastery created an exquisite sunburst.
John used contrasting Birdseye Sugar Maple for body binding, end graft, fingerboard binding and rosette rings instead of the traditional ivoroid used often in this aesthetic.
The neck has a three-piece construction using Honduran Mahogany with Birdseye Sugar Maple. John uses custom Ebony buttons on the Gotoh 510 tuners.
One of the unique features is the Ebony pickguard. John’s Birdseye Sugar Maple bindings, Green Abalone rosette and Style 40 top purflings contrast beautifully against the sunburst top.
Lastly, here is the guitar in its Hiscox Artisan case.
John has created a unique and beautiful custom instrument that I am delighted to add to my collection. He still needs to fine tune the set up over the next week before shipping it to me.
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02-21-2018 09:50 PM
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Gorgeous guitar and thanks for sharing pics. I had two Buscarino's back in the late 90's and they were fabulous.
Do enjoy !
Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk
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One of the best archtop luthiers in the world. If I could afford his guitars I would definitely buy one!
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I’m sorry man but Italian people really have a knack for making beautiful guitars.
Gorgeous iim7. Simply knockout drop dead gorgeous!
Thanks, Joe D
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That is really nice. I don't know what one of those costs, but it looks like a million bucks!
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Wow! Just wow! Congratulations, and play it in good health!
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Nice!
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A true work of art from a master. May she inspire your playing for many years to come!
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So.. I'm in your will, right?
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Outstandingly beautiful!
it looks like a great design!
what type of strings do you plan to use?
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Wow, that is truly stunning, and considering who made it, should sound equally as beautiful.
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Beautiful!
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I will try a few types to see what works best (PB, 80/20 and Nickel).
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Gorgeous guitar, congrats. How is the string spacing wider than the nut? Or did you mean at the bridge?
Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7
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Wow!,How can anyone not love that guitar! CONGRATS
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Yes, the string spacing is measured at the saddle. My archtops are 2-1/16”, and I have flat tops at 2-3/16” (this one) but most are wider at 2-1/4” and 2-5/16”. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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Gorgeous Buscarino! Congratulations!!! And I can't believe you're still buying guitars with the fine stable you already own
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Thanks.... Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
Gorgeous Buscarino! Congratulations!!! And I can't believe you're still buying guitars with the fine stable you already own
My commissioning of custom guitars way beyond “rational” at this point; but every guitar brings me nearer to the end though...????
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Here are the specifications for the guitar for those of you who are interested:
DIMENSIONAL:Model: Rhapsody
Lower Bout: 16.0"
Neck Block Depth: 3.50"
End Block Depth: 4.00"
Scale Length: 25.0"
Nut Width: 1.75"
String Spacing: 2.188"
Fingerboard Radius: 16"
Cutaway: Venetian
MATERIALS:Top Wood: Carpathian Spruce
Rosette: Green Abalone, Maple, Ebony - Style 40
Pickguard: 0.030" Gaboon Ebony
Body Wood: Carved East Indian Rosewood
Binding: Birdseye Sugar Maple
Top Purfling: Style 40, Green Abalone
End Graft: Tapered Birdseye Sugar Maple
Neck: Three Piece Honduran Mahogany/Birdseye SugarMaple
Fingerboard: Gaboon Ebony
Fingerboard Binding: Birdseye Sugar Maple
Fret Wire: Jescar EVO 47104
Truss Rod: Double Action
Bridge: Gaboon Ebony
Head Plate Veneer: Gaboon Ebony w/ MOP/Green Abalone Keystone & MOP Buscarino Logo
Back Veneer: Ebony/Maple/Ebony
Head Plate Binding: Birdseye Sugar Maple
Tuners: Gotoh 510 with Ebony Buttons
Finish: Nitrocellulose Lacquer, Autumn Burst
Case: Hiscox Artisan
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How does it compare to your Comins Zelig? They are almost the same in size and shape.
Congrats! It must be heady walking into your guitar room, err, vault.
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Since I don’t have John’s guitar yet (he is keeping it for a week or so under tension to dial it in the last 1%), what I am answering is speculative, but I believe it to be true (I will confirm after it gets here). Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
While they are both 16” hybrids of both archtop and flat top guitar idioms, Bill’s Zelig is an archtop with an extremely flat carved top, hybrid x-braced, tapered rims, archtop bridge/ebony saddle/tail piece and a ladder braced mahogany flat back. John’s Rhapsody is an x-braced flat top, with a fixed flat top bridge/bone saddle, with a carved rosewood back.
In simple terms, Bill’s guitar has the crisp attack and clarity of an archtop, but has enhanced bass response and some overtone enhancement. I expect John’s guitar to sound like a balanced flat top with more high partials but with faster attack and excellent projection of an archtop. The Zelig is made from mahogany which is higher damping and the Rhapsody is made from rosewood which is low damping. Additionally, John uses straight tapered bracing that tends to favor sustain over bass response.
There are other differences that are more ergonomic as well. The Zelig has longer scale length (25.25” vs. 25”) and narrower string spacing (2.063” vs. 2.188”). In the simplest of answers, the top makes a guitar. The Zelig is 75% archtop/25% flat top and the Rhapsody is 75% flat top/25% archtop...
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I just got the word from John, NGD = Friday...
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John has been playing guitar and I believe is making a recording as well (if he does I will share it here).
Aside from helping break it in, he also noticed some subtle playability issues in the guitar’s set up that can be remedied by adjusting thd string spacing in the nut and some fret dressing in order for it to be up to John’s high standards. This will only require another day or so. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I have a vacation planned next week, so I need John to hold off the delivery until mid-March when I return...
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John was kind enough to record a short video of my Rhapsody.
It was made with a single microphone (Asian AKG clone) into his Mackie mixer into his Canon T4i SLR. The audio interface on the Canon is not very capable at handling string dynamics and occasionally you’ll hear some over modulation on some strings as a result. But overall, you can really hear the sweet voice of the guitar. I can hear that it has balance across the strings and its voice remains true and strong even in the upper registers when playing arpeggios. You also get a good sense of the strength of the fundamentals, overtones and sustain. This presentation is a useful demo in that it combines some short clips of arpeggiated chords, single note lines, plectrum style as well as some fingerstyle. I also like that it is not awash with post-processed effects.
Last edited by iim7V7IM7; 03-06-2018 at 01:23 AM.
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And to think, it only has years to open up even more. What a sound! Beautiful Buscarino! And play some jazz on that guitar. Thanks for sharing!
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