Guitar
Maker
John D'Angelico
Date1937
Place MadeNew York, New York, United States, North America
ModelStyle A / arch top
Serial No.1265
SignedInlaid in mother-of-pearl on headstock, “New York” incised on tail of “o” and filled with black ink: D’Angelico / NEW YORKIncised and filled with black ink on mother-of-pearl banner on peghead: STYLE A
MarkingsBranded on inside of back: 1265
Stamped on tailpiece upper face: GROVER / De Luxe [in Gothic lettering]
Stamped on lower end of tailpiece: GROVER / PAT.APPL’D FOR
Stamped on tuner plates, the lettering curved upward at each end: GROVER
Engraved in cursive lettering on pickguard: Frank
DescriptionThe Style A was John D'Angelico's basic guitar. According to his shop ledger, which survives in the NMM Archives, this instrument, #1265, was sent to Gravois Music Shop in St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1937. The Gravois Music Shop was one of D'Angelico's top outlets in the 1930s and '40s, often receiving one or more guitars a month to sell. The Style A was one of their best-selling models. After 1945, when D'Angelico stopped making the Style A, the firm mostly sold his top-of-the-line New Yorker (18") and the Excel Special (a 17" guitar with New Yorker trim).
The Gravois Music Shop dates back to about 1916, when Joseph Ermantraut and his son, Joseph Ermantraut, Jr., started a piano store, probably in the father's home, at 1805 Gravois Street. In 1935, Joseph Jr. operated the Gravois Music Shop at 4650 Gravois Street, which is where it was located, when D'Angelico's #1265 was received at the shop in May 1937.
Interestingly, Mel Bay, the legendary guitar player and teacher who founded Mel Bay Publications — the firm whose guitar instruction books continue to be sold world-wide yet today — began teaching all day long at the Gravois Music Shop in 1935, while playing gigs at night. Mel played D'Angelico guitars, with an Excel for his solo work and a New Yorker for his rhythm work.
Vintage photos show him playing D'Angelico guitars with an owner's name engraved on the pickguard, as is seen on #1265. In the '40s, Mel had D'Angelico make him a special model to his own specifications, with a thinner neck and cutaway body, which was called the Mel Bay Model.
Stringing: six steel strings
Soundboard: arched, two-piece spruce cut slightly off-the-quarter: wide grain
Back: two-piece, slab-cut maple with faint, medium horizontal curl and pith flecks; wooden pin through back into neck block on bass side of center joint; wooden pin through back into end block on treble side of center joint
Ribs: two-piece, slab-cut maple with faint, medium curl
Head: maple; decorative mother-of-pearl inlay; mother-of-pearl “D’Angelico / NEW YORK” and “STYLE A” inlay
Neck: maple with medium curl; integral with head; three strips of inlay along center line, brown-stained maple on outsides and maple on inside
Heel cap: white celluloid
Binding: white celluloid; trim comprised of black-white-black-white celluloid purfling strips
Fingerboard: ebony bound in white celluloid; end terminating in a point, with rounded edges on the sides; 20 nickel-silver frets; mother-of-pearl blocks behind 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, and 15th frets; black celluloid side dots behind 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, and 15th frets
Nut: bone
Bridge: two-piece ebony (compensated) with brass screws for height adjustment
Tailpiece: chrome-plated brass Grover trapeze with eight raised bars on crossbar, secured to lower rib with three chrome-plated steel phillips head screws
Pegs: six Grover chrome-plated brass worm-gear machine tuners with convex head surfaces, reversely curved corners (known as “butterbeans”)
Endpin: white celluloid
Soundholes: f-holes
Pick guard: imitation-tortoise-shell celluloid bound in white ivoroid, with “Frank” engraved on upper end, mounted on guitar with chrome-plated brass bracket and three chrome-plated steel screws
Lacquer: black-brown-to-blonde sunburst with slight craquelure
Linings: kerfed maple
Neck block: mahogany; chamfered corners
End block: mahogany; chamfered corners
Top bracing: spruce brace on each side between f-hole and center joint
Grafts: short maple grafts on inside of back near neck and end blocks; short spruce grafts on inside of top near neck and end blocks
DimensionsTotal guitar length: 1045 mm (41-1/8″)
Back length: 517 mm (20-3/8″)
Upper bout width: 302 mm (11-7/8″)
Waist width: 251 mm (9-7/16″)
Lower bout width: 430 mm (16-15/16″)
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 84 mm (3-5/16″)
Rib height, at waist: 85 mm (3-11/32″)
Rib height, at end block: 85 mm (3-11/32″)
Head length: 190 mm (7-15/32″)
Head width, top: 100 mm (3-15/16″)
Head width, bottom: 84 mm (3-5/16″)
Neck length (nut to ribs): 347 mm (13-21/32″)
Neck width, nut: 41 mm (1-5/8″)
Neck width, heel: 52 mm (2-1/16″)
Soundhole length: 153 mm (6″)
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): high E: 629 mm (24-3/4″); low E: 631 mm (24-27/32″)
ProvenancePurchased from Larry Wexer, New York, New York, 2005.
Published ReferencesPaul Schmidt and Arian Sheets. The Masters' Bench (Vermillion, South Dakota: National Music Museum, 2016)
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 2005
Object number10826
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