Jump to content
Heritage Owners Club

D'Angelico


codfish

Recommended Posts

The first way to tell is they will be priced like a Heritage or more..   doesn't look like Premier models are that expensive. 

I couldn't tell you  if any  of the current D'Angelicos are ghost built by Heritage like they did way back when.   I know they made a few of them for the private collection of  the owners of D'Angelico a few years ago. 

Their website says their "Master Builder" series is made in NY.. so probably none from Kalamazoo at this point.... 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To my knowledge, the only Heritage-built D'A guitars were made quite some time ago. I do believe that, as of late, Victor Baker's shop in NY was building their high end models. Side note: Baker is moving his shop to San Diego.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, barrymclark said:

To my knowledge, the only Heritage-built D'A guitars were made quite some time ago. I do believe that, as of late, Victor Baker's shop in NY was building their high end models. Side note: Baker is moving his shop to San Diego.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

Here are some that we found in final assembly or ready to ship out in 2015.   I really can't remember what Jim said about them.. But I think in the end they ended up as some rare  and  special instruments that made their way the collections of the owners of D'Angelico.   I think we also saw one in finishing a year or two before that , it seems like he said that one was some type of prototype. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are some that we found in final assembly or ready to ship out in 2015.   I really can't remember what Jim said about them.. But I think in the end they ended up as some rare  and  special instruments that made their way the collections of the owners of D'Angelico.   I think we also saw one in finishing a year or two before that , it seems like he said that one was some type of prototype. 
 
 
Ah ok. That's right. I forgot D'A had put out the feelers. In the end, though, it did go to Victor Baker to produce the guitars.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw those at the shop too. Just prior or right around the time of FredZepp's photos I saw at least a half dozen boxed guitars for shipment to  D'Angelico. There were also a rack (at least a dozen) of unfinished solid bodies that surprisingly looked like PRS. When I asked I was told they were for a customer. That was the end of that discussion. There has been a lot of rumors about ghost builds by the former owners.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Genericmusic said:

I saw those at the shop too. Just prior or right around the time of FredZepp's photos I saw at least a half dozen boxed guitars for shipment to  D'Angelico. There were also a rack (at least a dozen) of unfinished solid bodies that surprisingly looked like PRS. When I asked I was told they were for a customer. That was the end of that discussion. There has been a lot of rumors about ghost builds by the former owners.

Ah ok. Next time I talk to "the family" I will see if they know about Marv or any of the original owners doing side builds. I haven't been up to Michigan in a couple of years now. Probably due. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, barrymclark said:

Ah ok. Next time I talk to "the family" I will see if they know about Marv or any of the original owners doing side builds. I haven't been up to Michigan in a couple of years now. Probably due. :)

I'm not saying they were PRS. I just don't know. They were unfinished and had no logos on them. However they did look very similar. I couldn't get an answer from anybody as to who they were built for. It was implied to mind my own business. So I did, until now anyway, 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, Genericmusic said:

I'm not saying they were PRS. I just don't know. They were unfinished and had no logos on them. However they did look very similar. I couldn't get an answer from anybody as to who they were built for. It was implied to mind my own business. So I did, until now anyway, 

 

Do you recall if the unfinished builds looked anything like the oddball build pictured below?

rPDOocf.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I remember those.  I think Marv said they were a "side project" of a cheaper line for outside the US.

FWIW, I thought they were pretty fugly myself.   And they looked nothing like a PRS. 

Just my .02

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Polo said:

Do you recall if the unfinished builds looked anything like the oddball build pictured below?

Could be. I don't recall. I thought what I saw had a different style body and the angle at the top of the headstock was reversed. It's been a while and I don't remember much except the was a whole rack of them unfinished and they said they were for a customer. Who knows? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/30/2017 at 3:50 AM, LittleLeroy said:

this is fairly definitive, i would say...

Thanks for the pic!

You need to realize, it is all about the time and the place.  At one time Heritage made these guitars.  They may not have made them for 20 years.  ;^)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, High Flying Bird said:

You need to realize, it is all about the time and the place.  At one time Heritage made these guitars.  They may not have made them for 20 years.  ;^)

I think it was a smart thing to do, and would still be, if the compensation was appropriate and Heritage wasn't busy producing their own guitars at maximum capacity.  Certainly a win-win-win for Heritage, the employees and D'Angelico.  Oh, and D'Angelico's clients.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

D'Angelico has two distinct lines of guitars.   The Masterbuilt guitars are USA hand built under direction of Gene Baker and Art Esparza.  They are small runs of maybe 3 or 4/month.  They typically will run from $8 to $20 thousand! 

The standard ones are built overseas in Korea, China and Indonesia.   At the prices they sell for ($1000 to $2000)   Heritage would not be able to compete unless the company wanted to put in a mid range which would probably cause the some market confusion.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember when Heritage was building some D'Angelico guitars. This was in the 1990s as I recall. It was at the NAMM show and there were quite a few guitars… maybe 20 or so. They were hand carved and very expensive. It wasn't official that Heritage was the builder, but I heard it from more than one person. I may have the catalog somewhere buried around here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5a2575c0ac871_DAngelicoIIbyHeritagepricelist.thumb.jpg.e96fadadcab259157f088a6e67008302.jpg

 

A price list from the early 90's .. the Heritage made D'Angelico's were referred to as D'Angelico II  models. 

15 carved D'Angelico II's were made, 3 by Jim Triggs  and 12 by Heritage.  Also, 25 ( not sure of number accuracy)   Gretsch 18" archtops were made by Heritage.   

 

5a2575eae9871_DAngelicoIIlabel.thumb.jpg.8dd845088e0133377f54cd5825f7189d.jpguTh2KG6IPKcyh1af7yRU6M6twqXm6Xik7UfrvlLs

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...