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1934-35 D'Angelico "Exel"
Status: SOLD For instruments now available, please visit our Instruments page here. To be notified of examples of this model or similar instruments as they arrive, please contact [email protected]. Please be specific on which instrument(s) you're looking for, and we'll be happy to contact you as soon as they become available.
Serial number: 1105, stamped inside back
Body size at lower bout:16 5/8" Scale length: 25". Nut width: 1 11/16"
Finish: Sunburst finish, nitrocellulose lacquer type
Materials: Solid handcarved flame figured maple back and sides; solid bookmatched handcarved spruce top; solid flame maple neck with 3-ply walnut/maple centerstripe; engraved mother of pearl block fingerboard inlays; ornate floral peghead inlay, seven-ply body binding, triple bound fingerboard and headstock, bound soundholes.
Hardware: All original hardware includes gold trapeze tailpiece, open-back Waverly tuners and pickguard support; adjustable ebony bridge; triple-bound engraved dark tortoise pickguard.
Notes: The instruments of master builder John D'Angelico are widely regarded as representing the very pinnacle of the modern luthier's craft. We are pleased therefore to announce the arrival of an instrument from the very birth of the model that made him a legend. Stamped with serial number 1105, this guitar is listed in the ledger as the third Excel model ever built. It would appear to have been completed sometime in late 1934 to mid-1935, and was purchased from Gravois Music of St. Louis by a gentleman named Vincent Burudo.
Similar early Excel examples are pictured in some of D'Angelico's advertisements from that year, but none display the unusually ornate inlay pattern of this guitar. The peghead shows the earliest version of the D'Angelico logo, with the maker's name inscribed in a pearl block, a precursor to the later 'banner' logo of individually cut letters. An intricate engraved pearl shield and boughs inlay occupies the center of the headstock. Both patterns are very similar to those of D'Angelico very first guitars, including #1002 from 1932. Intriguingly, a block logo bears the designation "Exel", a variant spelling seen only on the very earliest examples.
Most remarkable of all are the fingerboard inlays, each individually hand engraved. All specimens we've seen of these earliest Exel models display a deco-style abstract geometrical pattern inscribed in the fingerboard blocks. This guitar, however, harks back to an earlier sensibility, with a highly ornate Victorian floral pattern in the engraving. No two blocks are alike, and the pattern alternates between branches with blossoms and those with leaves alone. The intricately scribed inlay recalls the ornamentation seen on the most lavishly decorated banjos and mandolins of the Gilded Age. Though pearl engraving is today virtually a lost art, we were fortunate that master engraver Paolo Barbetti was available to reinscribe the inlays to their original glory.
While the inlay motif is firmly rooted in the 19th century, the body shows D'Angelico's first forays into the art-deco era. It seems likely this guitar was one of the very first to display the streamlined deco soundholes, a D'Angelico innovation that became an icon of his visionary designs. The bound tortoise pickguard is similarly transformed with a "lightning bolt" contour, another signature innovation. Enhancing the modernistic effect are small design motifs inscribed directly into the pickguard material itself, an effect we've seen nowhere else. Taken together, these creations came to represent the young maker's first significant departures from Loar era designs. No longer content to simply copy the L-5, D'Angelico has taken his first stand to assert his identity as a creative builder in his own right.
D'Angelico's creativity was by no means limited to visual design. A superb technical craftsman, he created an adjustable ebony bridge with a distinctly narrow footprint, and drilled out its base with a series of small holes, all of which serve to lighten the overall mass and enhance transmission of resonance to the soundboard. The trapeze design tailpiece is of a lightweight design as well, and works together with the parallel bracing of the finely carved top to produce a tone that is remarkably clear and well balanced.
The guitar is in excellent overall condition, and free of cracks, pickwear, thumbwear or buckle rash. Back, sides and neck are hand carved from exquisitely figured tiger flame maple. The bookmatched quartersawn spruce top is handcarved and tap-tuned as well, and the fingerboard is fashioned from dark Macassar ebony. The maker's original registration dots are found on the back near the heel and endblock. The original dark sunburst finish shows some typical dents, and has been preserved under a bit of light overspray. The binding is tight to the body and in excellent condition, as is the original engraved bound tortoise pickguard.
The neck profile is remarkably contemporary, with a gentle "C" profile that is neither clubby nor veed. The fingerboard is straight, and the freshly installed frets are level and immaculately dressed for a low, comfortable action. The fingerboard binding has been meticulously recreated to original specs, and hand toned to match. The voice of the guitar is truly exceptional, as years of play have opened it up to an elegant, refined tonality of remarkable sweetness and depth. Prewar Excels turn up rarely in the marketplace, and examples from the earliest years are rarer still. An instrument of unparalleled musical, visual and historical importance, at the very emergence of the modern archtop guitar.
Setup: The frets have been precision leveled, crowned and polished as necessary; bridge height adjusted; bridge compensation set; string slots at nut and bridge inspected; bridge foot contour inspected; bridge radius inspected; bridgewheels and tuners lubricated; fingerboard and bridge oiled; body and neck cleaned and hand polished.
This instrument is strung with medium gauge bronze strings (.013-.057).
The guitar will accommodate lighter or heavier gauge strings, according
to preference. String action is set at 5/64" to 6/64" at the 12th
fret, with moderate relief for acoustic playing with medium strings. The
action may be lowered or raised to your requirements with the adjustable
bridge.
Case: Black thirties vintage plush hardshell case in excellent
condition.
