This Excel is typical of late-1940s D'Angelicos, built with the highest-grade materials throughout.
It is registered in the D'Angelico ledgers as being sold in early April of 1948 to a player named Sam Williams. This Excel is a 17 1/4' body arch top guitar from the period that saw the full flowering of D'Angelico's talents as a guitar maker, made shortly before the cutaway-style body became the more commonly ordered instrument. Many players actually preferred the slightly smaller and easier to handle Excel to the New Yorker, which even after it was no longer the flagship model was still ordered regularly throughout the master's career. While this was not D'Angelico's most elaborate or expensive guitar creation (that distinction belongs to the 18' New Yorker), each 17' Excel was still individually built to the same high standard with all the care and beauty that characterizes the purely handmade D'Angelico instruments. This is a lovely example of an original John D'Angelico Excel in natural finish, substantially unaltered if well-used since its creation in 1948. D'Angelico Excel Model Arch Top Acoustic Guitar (1948), made in New York City, serial # 1786, natural lacquer finish, flame maple back and sides, spruce top maple neck with ebony fingerboard, original brown hard shell case.
