Very rarely does a previously undiscovered, totally undocumented guitar from a lauded maker like John D'Angelico come to light, but that's exactly what has happened here.
The official ledgers from highly reputable sources see the early '30s D'Angelicos jump in serial numbers from #1105 all the way to #1129- possibly due to John's tendency to make guitars "off the books" for a customer here or there, or just due to the fact that the proverbial "books" themselves are nearly a hundred years old. This was incredibly early in D'Angelico's career, and at this point he was only a few dozen guitars off of building straight copies of Gibson's Loar-era L5's, so to find one of the early style guitars where the builder took his first steps into a personal identity as a designer is an incredible thing.
This guitar has had a sordid past, being amateurishly refinished for unknown reasons, as well as having the back seam split and reglued poorly, both of which we've had re-done to the highest standard. Back in its original sunburst finish, this guitar is visually like it was the day John packed it up in the mid '30s.
The neck is sizable, though not extreme, and is representative of the Loar sized necks of the guitars John had copied for his first few years of building. The 16" body features a lovely tight grained sitka spruce top, as well as incredible European sourced flamed maple back, sides, and neck, that have been expertly repaired and restored. This guitar is sweet, loud, and punchy all in one. Serial #1106 comes with a non-original hardshell case.
