A couple comments:
1) Bob Benedetto will turn 70 this year and lives in Ocala, Florida. The Benedetto Guitars shop is in Savannah, Georgia, which is 3-1/2 hours by car north. At this point, guitar labels are sent to him for signature and on some high-end models actually the guitar. Today it is a high quality, small shop whose business is lead by Howard Paul and the shop lead by Daimon Mailand (Whose been there 10-years) with 5 workers who CNC, contruct, assemble, finish and set-up guitars that are Bob's designs or derivative of them.
2) When I last inquired with John Monteleone a few years ago his base price was $39,000. Most of his customization costs more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arnie65
This is really a matter of opinion and subjectivity in terms of how much money are we talking about. Since you didn't mention any amount, I would say Benedetto was building a superb instrument when he was actually the one building them. Now, I believe he has a crew of workers who do the actual building as he supervises and builds only a limited number himself. Due to the fact that it is impossible to put out the number of instruments he puts out a year if he was actually the one building them. So I will say IMO that John Monteleone probably builds the best archtop for the money. They start at $15,000 or more, and the sky is the limit.
Cheers,
Arnie...
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