D'Angelico Flattop - early 1970s

[Ray175]

When I was graduating from high school in Manchester, England in 1973, I organised a folk concert with about 20 people in the senior classes of the school. A few days before the concert, the owner of the musical instrument shop I had used for 3-4 years heard about the concert and loaned me an excellent acoustic guitar, which he had owned for 3-4 years. It was a flattop d'Angelico, and was a marvelous insrument, in sound, in playability and in appearance (sculpted headstock with to die for inlays).
Over the last 45-50 years I have never seen another flattop d'Angelico....... Can anyone throw any light on this instrument of my dreams? I can find no trace on the internet of any d'Angelico flattops from this period ......

[Wade Hampton]

Wow, that’s a very rare guitar. Mr. D’Angelico was primarily an archtop guitar builder in New York, as you’ve undoubtedly discovered. But I’ve read that he did build a small handful of flattop guitars. To think that one of them ended up in the hands of a music store owner in Manchester, England is fairly dazzling.

Now, there’s a possibility that he licensed his brand name to some guitar company, which in turn made some production D’Angelico flattops. But if that happened I’ve never heard of it, and it would have to have been a very brief production run to escape notice. It might have been one of those European companies like Levin that built a few.

But any way you look at it it’s going to be an extremely rare guitar, as you’ve discovered.

There have been a few attempts to revive the D’Angelico brand name, in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, if I remember correctly, but those are far too recent to be the source of the guitar you played.

Anyway, I’m afraid that I can’t help you with any pointers on how to find a guitar like that, because I doubt that there are more than four or five of them in the world, if that many.

This is where having a time machine to go back to that exact moment in time would come in very handy....

Sorry I can’t be of any real assistance to you.


Wade Hampton Miller

[NotALuth]

As Wade has already stated that would be some rare guitar! D’Angelico only ever made 1,164 numbered guitars in his lifetime (as well as some 300 or so mandolins and possibly some violins) before his death in 1964. The vast majority of these are known to archtops.

There is nothing in D’Angelico’s ledgers that can be definitely identified as a flat-top. However, there are a lot of instruments which are denoted as ‘special’ (including one which is shown in The Chinery Collection which has an oval soundhole which could possibly have a flat top).

There are a group of serial numbers in the ledger with an ‘O’ prefix which in Acquired of the Angels it is speculated could be round-hole instruments. Jimmy D’Acquisto, his protégée, recalls some round-hole being made but doesn’t elaborate further. As an aside, D’Acquisto definitely produced a small number of flat-top guitars in the 70s and 80s.

I have never seen any photos of a round-hole D’Angelico. There is one photo of John in his workshop with a flat-top on the wall behind him, but the headstock cannot be seen, and as a repairman this would not be surprising anyway.

As Wade also stated, subsequent use of the D’Angelico name starts considerably later than your encounter and so can be dismissed.

It seems likely that your experience will have to remain a fond memory, one that very few will ever have had.

Best regards,
Clive.

[Osage]

I've seen and played one D'angelico flat top and like his electrics, the body was made by United and he made the neck and finished the guitar. It would have been a cheaper guitar from him, almost certainly a custom order. Like the electrics, it is not numbered or in the ledger. There are probably others out there like this but it's the only one I'm aware of. There are no extant flat top D'angelico guitars where he built the body but I would not be surprised at all if one turned up. D’Acquisto made a handful of flat tops as well as at least one flat top classical guitar.

Before D'angelico built guitars under his own name, he worked for his uncle, Raphel Ciani. Ciani died in 1923 and D'angelico took over the shop, running it until 1932. Under D'angelico, they produced ladder braced flat top guitars. They are not labeled D'angelico but it was a small shop and he was in charge so he was definitely involved in both the design and building of them. I have one that's a 12 fret with a 15" lower bout. It needs work but is a pretty great guitar. Not to the level of his later archtops but certainly very cool.

[Osage]

Here's mine. c.1927