Heritage D'Angelico New Yorker

[vinnyv1k]

Beautiful Mike.....Congrats. You certainly roll a lot of sevens. And no strap pin on the heel even.....NICE.
IN THE GARDEN is my mom’s favorite song. I love that song too.

[feet]

i am willing to concede that is isn't a horrible looking guitar and it probably sounds ok, too

i don't mind that it doesn't have a pickup, per se, but there's so much negative space there... just enough for a magnetic contraption of some kind... to track sounds, somehow...

[GNAPPI]

Hey Mike,

I acquired a D'Angelico Excel EXS-1DH with a New Yorker Tailpiece, If you want it I'll swap you, unless you want to keep your new toy as it left the factory. PM me if interested. My Excel isn't any more valuable with a New Yorker TP, at least to me.

[BigMikeinNJ]

Thanks buddy, I’m gonna leave her just like she is. I am considering a hand made Kent Armstrong single coil with the little switch.

[Stringswinger]

There is a significant quality difference in the NYC made hinged tailpieces (made by the same company that made the tailpieces for John D'Angelico) used on the D'Angelico II guitars and the tailpieces used on the Asian imports.

Leaving it as she was made, is a very good idea.

[BigMikeinNJ]

Gary, it was late and I was tired and didn't thank you for your offer, I do now...


I really like that for whatever reason the guitar left NY looking like it does. To me it's stock and I think the practical angle of the strings being more "correct" (for the incorrectly shaped body length) is smart. It's "stock". I put more trust in the final assembly people's methods than my vague experience as a buyer of fine arch tops...

Thanks for all the encouraging words and comments. As an aside, I couldn't sit in a pew in church too long. Not that I didn't love what our pastor preached about - no, he was a real good forward thinking man. Kinda stretched the conservative old timers into thinking a little more modern without losing sight of The Lord... So I did stuff for the Church. I cooked at so many Pot Luck Saturdays with my old italian friends - you never saw the church so packed like it was on Pot Luck Saturdays (we're Seven Day Adventists, we observe the original Sabbath). And instead of going to someone's house for a long lunch and such I took my gear and showed up at the Convalescent homes twice a month for 18 1/2 years... I used to think "hell, Christ wouldn't pass up a good meal, but he sure would be mad at himself if he hadn't visited the shut ins and old folks looking their Judgement Day in the face." When you sing those old hymns (I'm talking very old hymns) to a group of folks in their wheel chairs or gurneys and they're marking time the meaning of "shall we gather at the river" takes on a stark new meaning. A reverence that leaves you pretty quiet inside. And I got to walk out of that place when we were done... When you'd come the next time and you didn't see one of the familiar faces you knew they'd crossed over...

Anyway that's my story...

Big

[Hammertone]

. ...I am considering a hand made Kent Armstrong single coil with the little switch.

Likewise for my Super Eagle!

[Marty Grass]

I'm a fan of the KA single coil.

[BigMikeinNJ]

Interesting tuning up a guitar that is NOS, imagine how stiff you'd be if you hadn't moved in 25 years. But tuned up and stable, she's loud and pretty. The neck is really easy to bar chord way up. I can't say enough about how carefully Gabriel wrapped and packed her - it was real surgery getting all the cardboard and bubble wrap he protected the case with removed. It's really a beautiful beast of a guitar.

[BigMikeinNJ]

[BigMikeinNJ]

When doing the deal Gabriel and I talked a lot. I went on how I was a huge fan of George Benson. He sent this under separate cover. Benson visited Gabriel’s fathers (Alex) store and autographed this.
Humbled

[BigMikeinNJ]

Well I have a bunch of stuff going on - remember I got the Whitney Tremorverb amp in also.
I did haul out the New Yorker and she's strung with heavy flat wounds, must be 13s at least - brand new. I played her about an hour. She's got a fast neck, I didn't say skinny, she's just right. Easy to play bar chords way up the neck without any strain to the hand. And SHE'S LOUD, even with flats on. I got the Armstrong single coil in and hope to get her to CME late in the week. I'm really impressed... I'm glad this one is done.

Big

[2bornot2bop]

Loved the guitar, the signed Masquerade album, the home cookin', and the BOXERS!!! Congrat's BM!

[Sam Sherry]

"Recorded and mixed January 6, 7 and 8, 1976"

Three days. Three days! Not a note you would change, not a vocal you would fix . . . thousands of Quiet Storms launched . . .

[BigMikeinNJ]

I got exposed to jazz in the early 60s when my folks got a couple crossover jazz albums as part of the Columbia Record Club - most notably Dave Brubeck's Take Five release. And in the Army when I got reassigned from a safe admin company into a tank combat unit the footlocker that was part of my assigned bunk had Wes Montgomery's TEQUILA on cassette in the little tray on top. Man that sure kept me company a lot of lonely late nights. I sort of got into rock pretty firmly there in the early 70s, I mean wow what great stuff was happening - and being in Chicago a LOT of soul music. It wasn't until 1977 when a new girlfriend gave me BREEZIN' as a gift that I was hooked, not like I am now but as Sam says that album was perfect - every track blended perfectly - it was like a lot of the famous rock albums of the late 60s (like Sgt. Peppers) it told a story and you never got tired of playing it over and over. At least I didn't. So to have this vintage lp signed by George Benson is really another feather in my GB Shrine collection.


Big

"Recorded and mixed January 6, 7 and 8, 1976"

Three days. Three days! Not a note you would change, not a vocal you would fix . . . thousands of Quiet Storms launched . . .