1951 D'Angelico Excel Archtop Tenor Guitar

Tuesday's prettiest entry has to be this '51 D'Angelico tenor guitar that was in for show-and-tell. Its owner picked it up recently from Norm's Rare Guitars (as I recall) and its 15th fret inlay is engraved with "Bennie Benjamin" -- the fellow who penned "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" with Sol Marcus. How about that?

The fittings are all-original except for a reproduction pickguard. The finish doesn't look like it's been stripped in the past but it's definitely been oversprayed and buffed at least once. It looks in keeping with the guitar, though. Dark spots in the top around the f-holes look like celluloid rot must have gotten to the f-hole binding at some point and outgassed, though. This discoloration is really common on old Gretsch guitars when they get celluloid rot.

All that said -- who cares? It's a D'Angelico and it sounds and plays as perfectly as you'd hope. The sign of a really good carved-top is that each note on the fretboard is as good as any other note. This one has solid, full, saucy notes everywhere. As someone who's seen a lot of tenor guitars, I have to say that it's extremely rare to find any that sound solid on the high A string (in standard tuning) past the 7th or 10th frets. This one has absurdly-thick sounds on that string all the way up to the end of the board.

So, yes, it's a winner.

Carved spruce top, carved stupidly-flamed maple back, flamed maple sides... over the top!