D'Aspiranta New Yorker Archtop

[grahamdabass]

Swanage does have an excellent Jazz festival, but they don't have enough good jazz guitarists (Sometimes none at all). Far too many sax players!

[grahamdabass]

My daughter lives there too! I think the Buxton Festival includes some jazz (and a lot of opera!).

[hotdotdog]

D'Aspiranta was never a Sam Ash store brand. These guitars were designed by Dr. Art Ridderhof (a collector) and built by the Peerless mfg company before they ever build what is now the Peerless New Yorker.

[violao]

I have one of these and I'm most impressed with build quality. They were definitely made in the Peerless factory, laminated 17" body, mine has a beautifully figured book matched maple back. Originally supplied with just a volume knob on the scratchplate, mine is modified to add a tone pot which gives it a bit more variety.

Originally ordered for a company based in California, Peerless now sell this under there own brand name.

Some people don't like the wooden tailpiece, but this is consistent with the Jimmy D'Aquisto model it copies, my only gripe is the Rosewood scratch plate which looks very cheap compared to the rest and is bound in white plastic. Wish I could find something better to replace it with.

The action is brilliant, neck inlays and binding is first class. I'd recommend one to anyone and as Martin Taylor is now endorsing Peerless he must have a pretty good opinion of them.

I had one as well... Well, sort of. Mine was a lesser OEM build under the badge Guitar Research model JX17N Eddie Durham 100th Anniversary Model with a 17" bout. It was a line build commissioned by Sam Ash's in-house brand Guitar Research with $599 MAP. And at that price point, there were a few compromises made compared to the D'Aspiranta New York. The gold color plated metal tailpiece was and faux Grover Imperial styled tuning machines were rough in their finishing. The rosewood fretboard and bridge were a little bit more roughly made and the maple laminate patterns were not always consistent in grade quality of grain, especially on the backs which could vary widely in the quality of look. The neck rosewood fretboard was a lower grade and the mother of pearl markers were rather dull in luster.

But here is what they got right. The binding was surprising well done, my top laminated looked "good enough", the headstock was such a great homage of the D'Angelico and D'Aquisto legacy styles, the Kent Armstrong like pickup was decent sounding, and they had a volume and tone controls on the pickguard. The Peerless and D'Aspiranta models seem to mainly be only volume. I was also rather pleased that owning is made me research the innovative Eddie Durham who should have been given as much credit as Charles Christian and Geroge Barnes.

I wandered into one of the local Guitar Centers, and saw mine (used) sitting on the main floor in guitar stand. It immediately intrigued me, and as I only demo'ed it acoustically, I was stunned by how it rang out. I was also stunned by the $399 price. I felt like it was an $800 guitar. This was way before I researched its provenance. But I alrea dy my Ibanez GB10 and my more recent use case had changed over to my violaos (classical guitars). I walked away from it, but it kept haunting me. I went back a few weeks later and it was gone, but I also told my twin brother (drums/keyboard/guitar/vox) about it. Sometime just after Xmas he was yakking about it with one of the staff at GC. That dude confessed that he had taken it off the floor and put it on layaway, but he was feeling wobly about paying it off, so he pulls it out and my brother purchased it. He sand bagged it until July and gave it to me for our 50th bday. <3

I used it on a few gigs, took to my drummer in my Quinteto's jam sesh and his and his bassist, who never compliments my sound, said it sounded amazing when I sat in. One year later, I am on one of my gigs on my 51st bday. As I was loading out, some jerk nabbed my archtop, and even more tragically, also my father's violao which he gifted me in my '20s. My grandmother had commission one of the best luthier's in La Paz, Bolivia in 1969 as a gift for my dad. I had Brasilian back and sides, It was a one of a kind build and a family heirloom, I was rather upset about its loss, but somehow, I felt she would come back to me. And she did! She was recorvered about 3 year later from my posts on Facebook. Based in the Seattle area, I had eyes looking out from Vancouver, BC to LA in my professional network. Even the Durham family chimed in on my FB page which was very touching that they reached out. Funny enough, the guy whose hands it fell into had a GF who confused me with another chap with my last name who was the program director at our regional NPR Jazz radio station. She was a contractor maintenance there who maintanced the office flora. And with her encouragement, he ended up returning her to me. He claimed that he bought it off some scruff who had no business owning it. He had no idea about the other guitar, so my Guitar Research JX17N Eddie Durham 100th Anniversary model remains at large. I also cruise seller site looking for the serial number with my original police report.

I still miss my old Guitar Research JX17N Eddie Durham archtop, but this D'Aspiranta New York is a nice replacement candidate, but I do not care for the name, even though it is far less dull than the completely uninspired name Guitar Research. D'Aspiranta kind of reminds me of that entry level crap econo car The Ford Aspire--gah... C'est la vie... la vida...

Funny epilogue: My brother bought another Guitar Research archtop (sunburst) for himself, so I guess I have that one if I absolutely need that sound, but I want one for myself. There is no doubt that Peerless builds an instrument that not only plays great, but punches way above its weight class. Besides, Martin Taylor plays Taylor too for his touring instrument. He has scads of better non-lam vintage archtops in his home studio for recording though.

This one looks very much like my old one.
Guitar Research JX 17N Eddie Durham 100th Anniversary JX 17N Eddie Durham 100th Anniversary Natural Natural > Guitars Electric Solid Body | Chicago Music Exchange

[kris]

I've played Di'Aspiranta years ago....;