2004 Michael Lewis D'Angelico (Authorized Hand Made in U.S.A. Replica) "New Yorker Custom Supreme" 16" Archtop

Timing is everything. Though we regularly take orders for custom Michael Lewis guitars, to have a top of the heap, all-out D'Angelico for sale is highly unusual. Here it is in all its pristine splendor. Before we talk splendor, though, let's get to the important stuff. Though brand new, this instrument has the feel, the tone, and the even, yet lively characteristics of the top archtops made today. The gorgeous, big acoustic tone is beyond what you would expect possible of a 16" archtop. Plugged in, the tone is lush and clear. A highly evolved Bartolini floating pickup is connected to tone and volume wheels situated at the underlying edge of the pickguard. Engraved white Mother of Pearl inlays decorate the Ebony fretboard. Vintage gold Mother of Pearl inlays provide a rich Art Deco motif--carried from the front of the crown to its rear face, to the heel cap itself--that is solidly born in D'Angelico tradition. The fit and finish are remarkable. The hand application of these intense multiple bindings as they perfectly make the turns reveals a level of mastery that few luthiers achieve. A satin gloss keeps an elegant look on the obviously well-endowed instrument. Multiple binding anyone? Not an easy task to make the curves and turns so well. If ever there was an heirloom worthy guitar to play and pass down the generations, this is such an instrument. Michael Lewis is a Master Luthier. He alone is officially authorized to further the D'Angelico tradition in America. The bar is raised with the creation of this instrument (and its Blonde fraternal twin that just shipped to our client in Hong Kong). In my opinion, John D'Angelico would have definitely approved. A lone Master Luthier produces an instrument with his own two hands that succeeds on a much higher level than a manufactured instrument. The true long-lasting value lies under the pretty paint job. Make no mistake: Well seasoned woods in the hands of a Master luthier can inspire music to new heights.

$28,000 with beige Calton case (Call for a quote on a custom order through Fine Guitar Consultants. A 2-year wait can help allow you time to budget for your custom Lewis guitar. They are realistically priced and his prices will rightly climb forward.)

2003 Sexauer FT-15, Serial No. 971003

Bruce Sexauer offered this guitar to us after it had been sitting in a store, undiscovered, with the wrong strings on it. We bought it. The guitar is now thriving on a diet of GHS Vintage Bronze, but it still wakes me up in the middle of the night! (Baddump-bum.) It is a gem. Years ago, I had a guitar that I miss from time to time. I sold it because it was so old and light in weight that I thought it might explode one day! That guitar was a 1931 OM-18 with banjo tuners. This guitar seems like its reincarnation! So light in weight, snappy, full richness of tone--Adirondack spruce over mahogany, head to toe. 1 3/4" nut and compensated saddle, hand made from bone. What more do I need to say? Plenty of headroom, big, tight bottom end--a great fingerstyle instrument that can rip a flatpick riff with the best of them. A player's guitar.

$5,750

2002 Shimo Art Guitars of Japan 'Tombo' Small Jumbo cutaway

The old growth Brazilian rosewood and the very old Sitka spruce soundboard are brought to high use in the hands of Master luthier/artist Takahiro Shimo. 'Shimo' (It is customary in Japan to use the second name; it is the equivalent of using our first name in America.) is celebrated among the guitar community as one of the very top artisans. It is certainly a challenge to describe sound in words on a page. This instrument is one of those that instantly reminds us of how a truly fine instrument can sparkle. There is a great amount of complexity, resonance, depth of character, that somehow remains balanced. If the sound were a piece of fine chocolate, this sound would be dark chocolate, laced with fresh roasted almonds. I told you it is a challenge to describe! As usual with Shimo's guitars, the art succeeds on 2 levels. This guitar responds to the lightest touch or can charge the room with powerful rhythm work; it is a looker, as well. A skillfully rendered dragonfly ('Tombo,' in Japanese) appears to hang from an inlaid wooden twig on the headstock. The Ebony fingerboard is simple, devoid of ornaments. The next and subtley beautiful detail is the rosette and matching top edge treatment. Thin strips of wood frame segments of Brazilian rosewood. The clean, contrasting detail is elegant, unusual, an a joy to spend time examining. The wood is clearly the feature here. The sound that Shimo successfully releases from the wood puts this into the upper class of hand made instruments. This is a 'life partner.'

$14,000

2000 Shimo Art Guitars of Japan 'Turquoise' acoustic archtop

Take in your first impression. This is organic art. Artistically, it was influenced by the art of Salvador Dali. It was painted blue, representing the true color of the semi-precious stone "turquoise" treasured by Far Eastern royalty. The soundboard is fine, straight grained, aged German spruce. Natural maple top and edge bindings, Mother of pearl decor features, including truss cover. Pearlescent buttons on gold Schaller tuners adorn the headstock. Ebony fretboard, Brazilian rosewood compensated bridge and carved cello tailpiece. The pickguard is lucite. The selection, orientation, and placement of each detail is quite artistic. The sound, from Master luthier/artist Takahiro Shimo is transcendant, light and has a singing quality all its own. We are honored to represent Shimo exclusively in the US. Shimo is a famous luthier in his native country, and his core passion is to go beyond his 30 years experience as a Master Luthier. His joy is to create these high works of visual art. If your taste in pure acoustic archtop tone is equaled by a love for art, you will get double pleasure from this fine instrument.

$12,500 SOLD (another being made for a client now) 

2006 Rick Turner Model One C-LB with Piezo, 'FGC Special' Featherweight Slot Head

Rick Turner is one of the bigger names in lutherie today. Yes, he can build a cutting edge, gorgeous-sounding hand made acoustic guitar with tasty design features and high acoustic efficiency. And Rick Turner can design electronics to take a great musician to stardom. He has done that with Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. Speaking of which, we asked Rick to make us another custom version of Lindsey Buckingham's guitar with full Brazilian appointments. Rick was so jazzed about making this instrument that he decided to give me (and you) a gift: a pre-embargo Ivory truss rod cover to balance with the white tuning buttons. We didn't mess with the signature sound, though. What I wanted, and received again, was a lighter weight version of the model that Lindsay is famous for. It is barely 5 lbs. Rick gave me plenty of sustain without the weight. Both the carved front and back are Brazilian rosewood, sandwiching a center core of Spanish cedar. It works so well. You can strap it on without hurting a shoulder. The Model One C-LB is a classic instrument. The piezo is a bonus. It is laminated under a gorgeous hand carved Brazilian, compensated bridge. The ability to blend the acoustic sound with the electric sound on a continuum is one of the versatile features that makes this instrument the 4-wheel drive off-road adventurer (musically)--while wowing the ladies with its James Bondish 'savoir faire' looks. I think that if Bond played, he would have played one of these...but these exotic wood knobs would have had different functions! Speaking of knob functions, click here to see a diagram of the electronic function of this guitar, including the 'soundhole' pickup that is mounted in rotating black high-impact plexiglas. A graphite-reinforced 'set' neck (not bolted) built of a five-layer laminate, alternating Honduran mahogany with purpleheart. The neck is a short scale: 24.75". The precision fret job over a two octave (24 fret) fully bound rosewood fingerboard makes playing a joy. This is a guitar that makes a statement both musically and visually. Hard to come by, the Model One C-LB 'FGC' Special 'Featherweight Slot Head' is one of a kind. (The other Brazilian/cedar/Brazilian with a maple neck and solid headstock was sold to a client of ours recently.)

$8,400 SOLD (Or, you can order one from us for the same price as directly from Rick and have Richard on your team, as well. Call for details.)

1995 Benedetto 'Grey Ghost' Custom

This is one of only a few of unique laminated archtops hand made by Master Luthier Bob Benedetto's own 2 hands. It was carefully designed to minimize feedback in ensemble work, but will do fine curled up with you on your sofa. This smooth one-of-a-kind 16" Benedetto was made for Jazz artist Ron Eschete. Ron backed up Ella Fitzgerald, Sara Vaughn, and did gigs and TV shows with everyone from Lionel Hampton to Bob Hope and the Tonight Show. Man, does this guy smoke! The playability is superb. The neck, hand carved by Benedetto, is designed for comfort and speed. The nut width is 1 23/32". This is a hair under 1 3/4", straddling the perfect line for versatility in crossing over from single line soloing to fingerstyle chorded melody. The body depth ranges from 2 3/8" at the upper bout to 2 1/4" at the bottom end. This instrument can do it all. The aesthetics are also very cool: The guitar has a unique subtle band of color, blending diagonally across the top from dark grey to light and back again. There is an even more subtle plum color undertone that is very striking, revealing itself under stage lighting. The same beautifully subtle color treatment is on the back of the instrument. Ron's trademark pearl descending dove adorns the head under the Benedetto name in pearl. Ebony pickguard, bridge, and tailpiece. Volume and tone knobs are placed for speed changes at the far edge of the lower bout, controlling a single built-in Benedetto neck pickup. The pickup converts from single coil to humbucking at the push/pull volume knob. It is only Ron Eschete's move exclusively to 7-string that makes this lifetime instrument available to you! It is in excellent condition, and it will be here awaiting the right match-up with the right player. It is priced right, as are all our instruments at FGC.

$17,200 with Accord hard case (case also accommodates other 17" archtops you may need to have well protected)

1989 Benedetto 'Ron Eschete's 1st Custom 7-string'

This is another of the small numer of laminated archtops hand made by Master Luthier Bob Benedetto's hands. It was designed to minimize feedback in ensemble work as Ron Eschete began to explore 7-string and what it could do for his music. This classic looking one-of-a-kind 16" archtop has been the backbone of quite a number of Ron Exchete's recordings. The playability is smooth and friendly. The neck, hand carved by Benedetto, is a slim D-shape. With the 2-inch nut put in the mix, the overall feel is not intimidating for the 6-string player who is exploring 7-string for the first time. It is actually 1/8" slimmer than many 7-stringed guitars we have experienced. If this describes your ideal feel, this guitar can be a great choice for you. If you have been playing for a number of years and are used to a quality hand made guitar, the solid-yet-balanced feel of this guitar will please you and increase your chances of taking to the 7-string guitar either full or part time. Ron Eschete switched back and forth between 6 and 7 for a number of years. He played the 6-string listed above in ensemble work around Los Angeles and also taught with it both privately and as a key member of the staff at G.I.T. (Guitar Institute of Technology in L.A. This guitar had the right feel for him when he started smoking on all seven! I have spent a number of nights with Annetta at L.A. clubs watching Ron with his trio--up on his toes--ripping improvisations with moving bass lines on this 7-string and having the audiences on their feet! Whether you are a more mellow player or one who seizes the moment, this guitar is a proven delivery system for some of the most exciting jazz imaginable. The scale length is Benedetto's standard 25". An active custom pickup is set in to the laminated top of the guitar. The body depth is 2 1/4" at both the upper bout and at the bottom end. This instrument weighs in at a hair over 8 lbs. It is well balanced, as its owner, who strapped it on night after night, can attest. Ron's trademark descending dove adorns the head above the Benedetto name--both in pearl. Ebony pickguard, bridge, and tailpiece. Ebony volume and tone knobs are on the instrument.

$17,400 with Ron Eschete's original black gig bag.

Boaz Elkayam 'Incognito' 12-fret 'FGC Special' non-cutaway

Remember when customized vans were the craze in the 70's? My dream van was a beat up looking, nondescript vehicle that no one would want to steal. Inside, my fantasy van was decked out with all the latest electronic and stereo gear and had a super-powered engine that could fly down the road. I never did buy such a van. That 'Clark Kent/Superman' thinking did surface again when I played coffeehouses as a solo in the 80's, though. I always loved fine guitars, and was struck with the tongue-in-cheek notion that when I played a fancy guitar in a coffeehouse, tips would suffer! Amused by this thought, a few years ago Boaz Elkayam and I brainstormed, co-designing the 'Incognito.' This guitar is the perfect 'stealth acoustic.' Under its humble 30's style gold to black sunburst finish-- with which you would expect to hide some 'mild-mannered' wood on a lower line production guitar--is a 30 year old Englemann spruce top of the highest quality ('Superman!'). Though the simply bound soundhole would indicate a typically X-braced top inside, this well-seasoned top is braced in Boaz's 'advanced' style. Bottom line: loud piano blues or sweet, sensitive fingerstyle and alternate tunings that hold their own. Full, singing highs all the way up. Elegant mid-range. Highly present and clear basses without any boominess. The 24.75" scale likes light gage strings while delivering the punch of mediums. The back, freed to vibrate, is beautiful, old quarter-split Brazilian rosewood. You and I will know it is there...and the black toner will mostly hide this 'secret weapon-wood.' A clearburst window on the back reveals the quality Brazilian rosewood. A Gaboon ebony fretboard is appointed with small (1/8") gold mother-of-pearl dots. White Lemonwood binding looks like vintage plastic for effect. Wood bridge pins in a Brazilian rosewood bridge add nice subtleties. Pull this humble-looking guitar out and expect a few raised eyebrows from the hot shots. Watch them get their hair blown back by this 'rusty van with all the inside gadgets!' The next 4 Incognitos will have 30-year-old spruce tops like this one.

SOLD, another coming...  $5,755 with metal custom 'vault' case (add $400 for cutaway) 

An Artwork in Shell

2004 'San Madonna' inlaid Masterwork dreadnought by 'Tony'

"Where do I begin on this? I guess I should say that this is the only guitar that I have ever purchased as an art piece. I wanted to enjoy the masterfully intense design and execution of this special artwork--then pass it along to an appreciative collector or museum. We are making it available for sale. The guitar comes from Tony's manufacturing facility in the Far East, but this guitar was made completely by hand. He has made some fancy inlaid instruments before this, but in terms of the many hours of painstaking detail, this is his most complex design to date. Though the guitar was primarily a canvas for the extensive inlay artwork, some heavy set-up work turned this instrument into a lovely player, as well. We planed the fingerboard, re-fretted it, and made a new bone saddle and nut. The maker made a nice guitar with exceptionally nice tonewoods. His set-up skills, a separate specialty, was not his forte. I do not want to be negative about the musical qualities of this guitar, though. The sound is ethereal and hauntingly beautiful. I showed it to artist/composer/FGC client Muriel Anderson last year and she really appreciated the musicality of the instrument. It is very suited to fingerstyle playing. It is quite even and balanced with gorgeous sustain. The design of the art was created to honor the birth of the artist's second son. The inlay work is very fine and artfully incorporates mother-of-pearl and abalone shell. The soundboard is master grade Canadian spruce, and features intensely green abalone on the top edge and matching sound hole ring. The rosewood back and sides are from the root of an air-dried 50+ year-old tree. The main artwork is inlaid here, using varieties of pastel colored shell that is engraved to bring the subject matter in to the realm of fine art. Although we have a guess as to what country the wood originated from, we can't be sure, if you get my drift. The dark rosewood fingerboard and bridge is very beautiful and has a subtle, figured life of its own. The tuner buttons are pearl inlaid buffalo horn. The nut width is 1 3/4" and the neck has a medium profile with easy action. The scale length is 25.5". What is this guitar actually worth? I consider such art to be priceless. I am arbitrarily asking a round number, but the true value is surely to be in the eyes of the beholder. Call me if that is you." --Richard

$10,000

Boaz Elkayam 'Special' Baroque Classical Parlor

This is the famous instrument that was made by third generation luthier Boaz Elkayam. The guitar has been displayed in art galleries and shows and is now available for sale to a player, collector, or art investor. When Boaz first moved from his home in Northern Israel to the U.S.A., he was new to the Country. He arrived knowing no friends or, for that matter, guitar clients. He brought with him, this guitar, a work in progress that he brought along slowly over time as he traveled the world and worked on guitars by hand in primitive environments--often without the benefits of electricity or running water. Now in the US, he moved from New York to Los Angeles, where he completed the guitar. He decided to put all his newfound time and creative energy into finishing this one instrument. Boaz does not work with power tools. He used only his knives, hand planes and small pieces of precious woods he had brought with him. Working with very old pieces of maple, Brazilian rosewood and a well-seasoned Sitka spruce soundboard, he fashioned this fastiduously elegant, inlaid, painted and appliqued guitar with an overwhelmingly complex eighty-two piece back. Its ebony tuning pins, like those of a violin, and old, embargo free ivory carved key bushings are among the distinct features that set this masterpiece apart from any other. The face of the instrument features an ebony design, inlaid into the spruce by cutting each fiber with a knife. The rosette is perfectly inlaid with high quality shell that lights up like jewelry in the light. A detailed and delicate gold Mother of Pearl hummingbird hovers at the very bottom, lying in wait for your eyes to journey across the decorated surfaces in awe of the artistry evidenced here. Thousands of hours by firelight and candlelight were invested by Boaz to create this single masterpiece that would launch him into the consiousness of American lutherie, players, and collectors everywhere. This is a prime example of the modern luthier's art, executed in the Baroque style. Those that have knowledge of the skills it takes to craft a detailed piece of this magnatude will appreciate the modest price as an artwork while enjoying the prospect of playing this excellent guitar. The tone and playability of the instrument are a delightful bonus, expected from a master luthier like Boaz. This instrument is worthy of heirloom status. You can pass it down in your family for future generations to enjoy. Such a guitar will never be repeated by Boaz Elkayam. His is a long legacy of fine instrument makers that may now continue on in his new firstborn son, Oved! We shall see...

$65,000 with custom black coach leather presentation bag by Glen Cronkhite

All Instruments come with better hard shell cases unless otherwise noted. US Money Orders, Checks, or simple computer bank wire transfers are accepted. Financing, Terms, Trade-ins Available. Not responsible for errors or ommissions, subject to prior sale, and price changes due to market conditions.

We are responsible for taking all the time you need to help get you what you want.