Fender D'Aquisto? I've Never Heard Of Them Before.

[Kandinskyesque]

Doing my usual guitar surfing around Reverb and looking at £50K D'Angelicos that I'd be lucky to get through the door even if I won the big Euromillions.

I came across a Fender D'Aquisto.
I had no idea they existed.

Does anyone have any lowdown, history or experience of them?

 

[Jakedog]

I remember them. Never played one. I believe they were thought to be pretty decent boxes when they were new. I haven’t seen one in probably 25 years.

Jimmy D’Aquisto was one of D’Angelico’s apprentices. He went on to build his own guitars in NYC. I believe Fender licensed his designs later on.

 

[Dan German]

Huh. I know of his spectacular arch tops, but never knew about the Fender deal.

 

[BuckNekkid]

Gads, don't you guys know that a post like this is useless without pictures? Here, I saved you the trouble.

Not cheap. Around US$2,500 these days.

 

[Jakedog]

Gads, don't you guys know that a post like this is useless without pictures? Here, I saved you the trouble.

Not cheap. Around US$2,500 these days.

Actually, if it’s a decent real-deal Jazz box that’s not expensive. Compared to a Buscarino or Benedetto archtop, $2500 is chump change. The world of serious jazz guitars is kinda like Classical guitars. Us knuckle draggers are used to being able to find passably decent instruments for under a grand in a lot of cases. That doesn’t happen in other corners of the guitar world.

 

[Kandinskyesque]

Gads, don't you guys know that a post like this is useless without pictures? Here, I saved you the trouble.

Not cheap. Around US$2,500 these days.

Thanks for including the obviously stupid omission on my part.
It's past midnight here in Tartanistan and Mrs K has been bending my ear about work for a few hours.

 

[Ringo]

They made a 2 pickup version too, a guy that I played with growing up bought one new many years ago. I don't remember much about it, haven't seen him in forever so I don't know if he still has it.

 

[loopfinding]

Actually, if it’s a decent real-deal Jazz box that’s not expensive. Compared to a Buscarino or Benedetto archtop, $2500 is chump change. The world of serious jazz guitars is kinda like Classical guitars. Us knuckle draggers are used to being able to find passably decent instruments for under a grand in a lot of cases. That doesn’t happen in other corners of the guitar world.

which can get kind of funny. something like a benedetto is a cut above a big factory guitar. but because of fame/history alone, vintage gibson archtops can command similar prices and usually double of what like an epiphone or guild would, even though those three are all pretty much of equal quality.

 

[brookdalebill]

We had one at work recently.
Nice guitar!
I remember when they were new.

 

[trandy9850]

I sold a bunch of those back in the day….these were wonderful guitars….made in Japan and very high quality.

I did a couple of clinics with Tommy Tedesco….he was playing them at that time.

 

[Tricone]

James D'Aquisto was THE archtop luthier of his day. Jim Hall used his guitars for many years. He collaborated with Fender and licensed a few examples to them. James D'Aquisto passed away in 1995 from a heart attack.

 

[Short on cash]

I talked with Jimmy in the late 70's several times.

At first he was vary leery because he had just been burned by Fender.
As I got to know him he loosened up and became very friendly.
We talked about guitar design and his ideas.
After he passed I spoke with his son a couple of times. Too bad his son
never followed his father.

His guitars are worth a fortune today. The best in the world.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

James D'Aquisto was THE archtop luthier of his day. Jim Hall used his guitars for many years. He collaborated with Fender and licensed a few examples to them. James D'Aquisto passed away in 1995 from a heart attack.




View attachment 1072506

D'Aquisto died at the same age as D'Angelico. Hard to believe he's been gone for almost 3 decades.

 

[JohnnyThul]

Jimmy D'Aquisto also taught a lot workers at Fender about making archtops, among them the above shown Stephen Stern who is now head of Gretsch Custom Shop.
Afair Greg Fessler was also among those who worked with him. Maybe it was die to that experience, that also the Robben Ford Elite guitars were built, which are a specialty of Greg Fessler.
I remember, there was a collaboration with Benedetto as well in the 90s, but I am not sure, if a model came out if this. At least he also instructed a few of the Custom Shop builders.

If you think about it, having learned from Benedetto and D'Aquisto, two of the greatest archtop builders ever, that's not a bad track record. And then you rarely get the chance of making a traditional archtop, shame.

 

[EllenGtrGrl]

I remember when the D'Aquisto came out in the early or mid 80s. Many guitar players (including myself), kind of blew them off, because they were expensive, and weren't "real" Fenders (due to them being hollow bodied guitars - it was also kind of like that for the semi-hollow Starcaster), despite them being really nice guitars. I've only seen a few of them up close over the years, and for a while, you could buy them (and the Fender Flame, and Esprit guitars) at relatively cheap prices, due to them being "red headed step children" (along with the Katana, and Performer) in Fender's product line. Nowadays prices have gone up for the D'Aquistos quite a bit. IMO, it seems that Fender added the D'Aquisto, Flame, Esprit, Katana, and Performer series guitars to their product line in the 80s, as an effort to revive the company. It was already not in the best of shape financially, when it was bought from CBS, and things weren't helped by what seemed to be the "we only make twangy guitars" image they had, when a lot of the "cool" guitar players, were into humbucker equipped guitars, that didn't look surfy like a Strat, or country like a Tele (I remember having a hard time even finding Teles in guitar shops in the 80s).

A little trivia - Jimmy D'Aquisto was John D'Angelico's nephew, and apprenticed under him.

 

[bottlenecker]

Gads, don't you guys know that a post like this is useless without pictures? Here, I saved you the trouble.

Not cheap. Around US$2,500 these days.

That's cheap!

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

Jimmy D'Aquisto also taught a lot workers at Fender about making archtops, among them the above shown Stephen Stern who is now head of Gretsch Custom Shop.
Afair Greg Fessler was also among those who worked with him. Maybe it was die to that experience, that also the Robben Ford Elite guitars were built, which are a specialty of Greg Fessler.
I remember, there was a collaboration with Benedetto as well in the 90s, but I am not sure, if a model came out if this. At least he also instructed a few of the Custom Shop builders.

If you think about it, having learned from Benedetto and D'Aquisto, two of the greatest archtop builders ever, that's not a bad track record. And then you rarely get the chance of making a traditional archtop, shame.

Fender will never be known for archtops, no matter what...

 

[Dano-caster]

Here's my '84 Elite.Such a sweet guitar is a real pleasure to play.The Schaller humbucker is so clean and the guitar resonates beautifully acoustically and amplified.Beats any ES175 I've ever played for jazz sound.Jimmy spent a lot of time on this project even though so few were produced.My favorite arch top.

 

[Short on cash]

I remember when the D'Aquisto came out in the early or mid 80s. Many guitar players (including myself), kind of blew them off, because they were expensive, and weren't "real" Fenders (due to them being hollow bodied guitars - it was also kind of like that for the semi-hollow Starcaster), despite them being really nice guitars. I've only seen a few of them up close over the years, and for a while, you could buy them (and the Fender Flame, and Esprit guitars) at relatively cheap prices, due to them being "red headed step children" (along with the Katana, and Performer) in Fender's product line. Nowadays prices have gone up for the D'Aquistos quite a bit. IMO, it seems that Fender added the D'Aquisto, Flame, Esprit, Katana, and Performer series guitars to their product line in the 80s, as an effort to revive the company. It was already not in the best of shape financially, when it was bought from CBS, and things weren't helped by what seemed to be the "we only make twangy guitars" image they had, when a lot of the "cool" guitar players, were into humbucker equipped guitars, that didn't look surfy like a Strat, or country like a Tele (I remember having a hard time even finding Teles in guitar shops in the 80s).

A little trivia - Jimmy D'Aquisto was John D'Angelico's nephew, and apprenticed under him.

I've never read anything about Jimmy being John's nephew.
You sure about that ?
Jimmy did apprentice under John. No doubt about that.

A few films of Jimmy building guitars has been posted on the web the last
few years and are well worth checking out.

 

[trandy9850]

I talked with Jimmy in the late 70's several times.

At first he was vary leery because he had just been burned by Fender.
As I got to know him he loosened up and became very friendly.
We talked about guitar design and his ideas.
After he passed I spoke with his son a couple of times. Too bad his son
never followed his father.

His guitars are worth a fortune today. The best in the world.

What happened between Jimmy and Fender?