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D’Aquisto guitars are obviously quite coveted, but I’ve always been curious what pro’s are actually playing them or similarly inspired modes?
The obvious answer is Jim hall, but outside of that? Just wondering where all the clout comes from given that most people have never had the good fortune to play one and seemingly most of their musical heroes don’t play one either. Is part of it just the D’angelico association?
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07-05-2021 08:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Dioxic
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Joe Pass was a D'Aquisto player. Grant Green was a D'Aquisto player.
Along with Jim Hall, what more could you need?
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Originally Posted by Dioxic
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Originally Posted by Dioxic
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Originally Posted by Dioxic
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Originally Posted by Dioxic
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I actually didn’t know the former two played D’Aquistos. What portion of their recorded and / or live work was with those instruments, though? First thing I think of when I think of Joe Pass is his es-175, not a D’Aquisto. Originally Posted by Stringswinger
Same thing with Benson, really.. just because someone owned or played a song or two with one doesn’t make it their main axe, weapon of choice, or a large contributor to their tone, etc.
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Peter Rogine and Joe Carbone both playing D’Aquistos. I saw them together and they were great. Originally Posted by Dioxic
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Mark Elf: Originally Posted by Dioxic
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I just grabbed a handful of shots of D’Aquisto players that I could think of off the top of my head. There were plenty of people playing D’Aquisto’s back when Jimmy was building guitars.
Keith
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I saw Joe Pass playing his D’Aquisto many times. Originally Posted by Dioxic
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Benson is contractually required to play Ibanez live. Otherwise, he could play 1 of his 2000 guitar collection. He’s probably had the largest manufacturer contract over the past 50 years. Originally Posted by Dioxic
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i agree with you, but that doesn’t change the fact that a large chunk of his recorded output isn’t with a D’Aquisto guitar Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
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Joe Pass often visited England, and always teamed up with Cedric West, my
late tutor, I had the honour of meeting him on several occasions and swapping
guitars with Joe (JP20's)
He would not bring his D'Aq for fear of loss or damage. It made little difference
to us, he could make a cigar box and rubber bands sound good. When Louis
Stewart dropped by he was quite complimentary about the Ibanez guitars.
Little wonder the top players used D'Aquisto, they were the " Plat du jour"
yet George Benson sounded great on his Ibanez too. We all know it's not the
box, but the player.
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Steve Miller had several guitars built by JD, as did Joe Caro (NYC Session player), Janice Ian, Don Gibson.
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Is your point to prove that almost nobody plays these as their main instruments, or were you trying to find out guitarist who did use them? Does it only count if the D'Acquisto was their "main" instrument? And what does that mean exactly? Sounds like you have some conditions that need to be met and it would be helpful for us to know what those are. Originally Posted by Dioxic
Also, everyone who plays a Borys is following in the D'Acquisto lineage.
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At some point, D'AQ's had such a reputation that only millionaires could afford to buy them.
Paul Simon bought a few. When my sister worked at the Fillmore East, she told me Neil Young interrupted his set, and got on the microphone and said, "Hey man, I'm playing the best guitar in the world that I just bought this week! I'm playing a D'Aquisto!"
At this point, guys who were smart enough to buy a D'AQ before this happened, locked their D'AQs away, and wouldn't let them out of their house. Every guy I knew who had a D'AQ would never bring it on a gig.
Vinnie 1K put his kid through college with the sale of his D'AQ!
A friend of mine bought one, and he stopped playing it immediately.
As for "similarly inspired modes", Roger Borys, Jimmy's longest apprentice, and business partner with Jimmy when they made one D'AQ model together, was forced to go out on his own, when Jimmy signed a contract with Fender to produce the Fender D'Aquisto. One of the stipulations of the contract was that Jimmy and Roger could have no contact- even by phone(!).
But by this time, Roger, Jimmy and Barry Galbraith developed the BG-100, now the B-120, which is the main guitar used by superb guitarists such as Paul Bollenback, Emily Remler,Larry Koonse, Vic Juris, Jimmy Wyble, and many others, including Galbraith and all his friends, Howie Collins, Tony DeCaprio, etc...
I heard Larry Koonse's Borys B-120 on the LA Jazz Quartet albums "Conversation Piece" and "Look To the East", and loved the sound of his guitar so much, I went out and bought the CDs, and then a Borys B-120.
Roger Borys built the laminated top for Jim Hall's D'Aquisto.
So many other luthiers acknowledge the influence of Jimmy on their guitar building, that you could just choose any top luthier of today, and find his name mentioned when they describe their approach as luthiers.
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I would think that at this point, there are a lot more players actually using Borys guitars (especially his laminate guitars) than D'Aquistos. And those guitarists using Borys guitars seem incredibly loyal to them. Originally Posted by sgcim
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Great question. Really my point is to find out who used them as their “main instrument”, mostly out or curiosity and to help identify the influence of the “D’Aquisto sound” in recorded jazz guitar output. Originally Posted by Cunamara
On that same note, players that primarily use archtops from contemporary builders that are heavily influenced by D’Aquisto are also of interest. A la Borys players as you pointed out
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Joe Pass jamming on his D'Aquisto in his backyard?
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If my memory serves my correctly then most reports about Jimmy D's guitars focus on the acoustic properties of these instruments whereas when I listen to recordings they were used on they are played via an amp and Originally Posted by Dioxic
with a magnetic pickup. I can not make out a characteristic sound that clearly differs in any way from recordings done with similar guitar/pickup combinations, be it a Super-400/DeArmond 1100 ,
L5/guitar mic, Emperor/Epi Deluxe, Artist Award, you name it ..... really, my own Benedetto Fratello didn't sound much different from the 2 Johnny Smith models I owned but the '62 Super-400C with a 60's
1100 pup shot them all out of the water. For me .....
If there is something like the “D’Aquisto sound” then it's the electric sound of Jim Hall's recordings from the 70's and 80's and subsequently the sounds from guitars that were modeled after that one,
i.e. the guitars from Roger Borys (who was the first to follow suit), to be followed by Steve Andersen, Steven Holst, Linda Manzer, Victor Baker, Bryant Trenier and a host of lesser known luthiers. IMHO that's Jimmy D's true legacy,
despite the undisputed excellence of his solid wood archtops and the handful of his late masterpieces - these did so much to break open the old cast of the traditional design aesthetics re ornaments, restraint,
wood choice, balance of tone etc. but I still need to find ONE officially released recording by an able artist who actually used such a guitar WITHOUT any pickup .... If you know of such a record then please let me know !
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Well sometimes it is very personal and the concept is hard to describe. I am a nobody player who hacks around on the guitar. I took my 1949 D'angelico out today and played for 1 hour acoustic. I played some chord-melodies and just tried to make nice music. It will never be recorded on anything and is meaningless to everyone but myself. What I can say about the connection and the experience in making the sounds is all that IS. Is this the guitar better than x, y, or z? I don't know and I don't care but even if I was a famous player with endless chops and even a huge audience. It was just the guitar and me today..............My guess is D'aquisto guitars did that for those who owned them. Originally Posted by gitman
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