What's going on with this 1935 D'Angelico?

[backdrifter]

That's a shame that the current owner isn't forthcoming with all of the information on the guitar. I'm still interested to see what price it sells at though. That's an amazingly gorgeous guitar and the repairs and modifications wouldn't prevent me from considering it at the right price.

[rpguitar]

The tailpiece does look too shiny to be original, and the tuners/bridge/guard are all obvious replacements. Those are not such a big deal, but the fingerboard? Maybe they carefully preserved the inlays and installed into a new board. Wonder why it needed all that work, and where the original parts are?

Seller is not forthcoming, which is a problem. For the right price, it's a gem though. 40 bids already.

[Jabberwocky]

... 40 bids already.

Not so impressed with the 40 bids. 33 bids are from the same bidder chasing it up by $5 to $20 increments and giving up when it hit $311.

Also, "private listing-bidders' identities protected" usually spells bad news; could be shill bidders for all we know. ebay obscures bidders' identities already but you can sort of tell by the feedback score how many unique bidders there are. Hiding bidders' identities further merely tells me the seller does not want anyone to know how many unique bidders there are. Hence, he is trying to hide something.

[wintermoon]

The tailpiece does look too shiny to be original, and the tuners/bridge/guard are all obvious replacements. Those are not such a big deal, but the fingerboard? Maybe they carefully preserved the inlays and installed into a new board. Wonder why it needed all that work, and where the original parts are?

Seller is not forthcoming, which is a problem. For the right price, it's a gem though. 40 bids already.

the t.p. might be original, just replated. it's consistent w/ what DA was using in '37

[Stringswinger]

My 1937 Style A has a Grover Deluxe tailpiece

[cgratham]

That's beautiful Marc.
Not to derail this thread, but are those nickel strings you've got on there? And is the pup the 1100?

Thanks, Chris

My 1937 Style A has a Grover Deluxe tailpiece

[Stringswinger]

Yes on both counts Chris. The pup is a vintage Dearmond 1100 and the strings are Thomastic Swing series 13's.

[rpguitar]

Stringswinger...how does the Style A sound compared to a 16" 1930s Gibson L-5 or L-12, if you have a frame of reference for that?

[Stringswinger]

Roger, all 17 inch DA's are of similar sound, the only difference being cosmetic. I have A/B d my 37DA against a Gibson L-5 from the same decade and found the Gibson to be brighter and a bit louder. The DA is more balanced up the fretboard. Also the DA is much more dry. No natural reverb to speak of.

Cheers,

Marc

[rpguitar]

Also the DA is much more dry. No natural reverb to speak of.

Fascinating. And ultimately, that's a killer for me. I can rest easy now.

Thanks Marc!

[Ol' Fret]

The DA is more balanced up the fretboard.

Sounds great!
There may be a number of other objectives in archtop guitars, such as maximal projection, volume or cutting power. But the clarity of the voice, and most important, both dynamic balance and tonal evenness across the pitch range and from string to string are the features of real master guitars.

[brewster]

i played the specific '35 style A, which started this thread, while it was at elderly a year or so ago. it sold for $10.5K fairly quickly. it had some cosmetic alterations to it. had a very rich tone. only detractor from the voice was that i thought the high E was a tad on the weak side.

relative to another post on all 17" D'angelico's being the similar in voice, i have to share my limited experience btwn my '39 style A and my '39 style B. the A has started on its journey of repairs to bring out all of its voice so i won't be playing it again for a few months. the A is 1/4" deeper and a 1/4" wider than the B, which surprised me! this could explain, in part, why the A has a notably bigger voice. the B has binding in the F holes, which initially are cut to the same size as for the A. this addition of the binding results in the F hole opening being much smaller than in the unbound A's F holes. as many of you know, size (and location, orientation) of the F hole can affect the balance btwn the low end and volume that an archie, or mandolin, ends up with.

both of these have an amazing clarity and evenness btwn the strings all over the board. they also possess great sustain, which i'm not sure is the same as the "natural" reverb mentioned for gibsons.

so there is what i have to offer. hope its useful to someone.