D'Angelico

John D'Angelico (1905–1964) apprenticed as a violin maker under his great-uncle in Manhattan's Little Italy before opening his own workshop at 40 Kenmare Street in 1932. Working with at most two assistants — one of whom was his apprentice Jimmy D'Aquisto — his shop produced no more than 30 guitars per year, totaling an estimated 1,164 instruments across his entire career. Larger companies made offers; D'Angelico turned them all down. He died in 1964 at 59, having never left Little Italy.

The four main models were the Style A, Style B (both phased out by the 1940s), the Excel, and the New Yorker — an 18-inch archtop with pearl inlays and quadruple bindings that became the definitive expression of D'Angelico's craft. Jazz and big band players were his primary clientele: Chet Atkins, Bucky Pizzarelli, Chuck Wayne, and Johnny Smith among them. D'Aquisto eventually purchased the shop from the D'Angelico family and continued building before going on to build guitars under his own name. D'Angelico and D'Aquisto are broadly regarded as the two greatest archtop makers of the 20th century.

The trademark was acquired in 1999 by Steve Pisani, John Ferolito Jr., and Brenden Cohen, but the brand didn't formally relaunch until 2011 — timed partly with a D'Angelico exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The modern company, headquartered in Manhattan, designs its instruments in New York and manufactures overseas, offering three series (Premier, Excel, Deluxe) spanning archtops, semi-hollows, and solidbodies. The Art Deco design signatures of the originals — the Stairstep tailpiece, Skyscraper truss rod cover, ornate headstock — carry through the current line.