D'Angelico

John D'Angelico is famous for his archtop f-hole jazz guitars -- it is safe to say that he is the most famous independent builder of that type of instrument in the world, often compared to Antonio Stradivari, the violin guy.   Possibly there are compared so often because in his lifetime Mr. Stradivari is said to have built 1,100 violins while John D'Angelico built 1,164 guitars and mandolins.

John D’Angelico, considered the finest independent guitar builder of the 20th Century, or at least for the first two-thirds of that century, made a keystone model that he called “New Yorker.”   This was an elaborately decorated instrument, made of the most select woods and built on a large platform (possibly because John was vertically challenged) measuring approximately 18” in body width. 

D’Angelico mandolins are uncommon (John made just 47 of them) and, as you would presuppose, they are also incredibly great sounding.  If owning a John D’Angelico hand-made mandolin is included in your vision of “eternal happiness” this is a really nice one and it would, we vouchsafe you, make you genuinely happy. 

NOW ON SALE - WAS $7212 BUT NOW ON SALE FOR:   

What is as beautiful as a D’Angelico mandolin? The last numbered mandolin D'Angelico entered in his log book was #174 which was dated 1954, and then he entered #185 dated 4/19/52 which doesn't say "mandolin" but it does say "Pts." Which might mean a "mandolin with 2 points." In the annals of great mandolins of our ancestral past, the John D’Angelico hand-made stands apart in the hierarchy of historiography. It also sounds marvelous.THIS WAS $9500 BUT NOW ON SALE: