D'angelico Excel 59 Viola

The guitars of D'angelico are inspiring in every way. In the first place they are beautiful to look at, but next to that D'Angelico guitars live up to all expectations with regard to sound and build quality.
The New York based guitar company has a rich history and is famous for their iconic jazz boxes. However, the current collection of D'angelico offers a wide collection of cool solid body, ES-style and off-set guitars as well.

With the Excel 59, however, D'angelico stays close to the original hollowbody design from 1959, but with a modern twist. Although the full hollowbody is 16" wide, with a depth of only 1.75" it is remarkably thin having the same thickness as a thinline / ES335 -style hollowbody. The single-cut body has a laminated spruce top and a beautiful laminated flamed maple back and side, and the 3-piece walnut / maple set neck has an ebony fingerboard. Seymour Duncan developed a set of "Great Dane" dog-ear P-90s especially for D'angelico; a vintage 1940's inspired pickup set.
This package of ingredients result in a specific sound; a very natural, fresh sound with a rich tone and a wide frequency range. The overall impression might be that the Excel 59 is made for jazz, but it can definitely do much more than that! The 59 is great for a  wide range of traditional guitar-styles like Americana, R&B, soul and blues, but also in the context of pop music where you'd want to create a characteristic, authentic vibe, the 59 is a fantastic instrument.
This version, with a gorgeous dark red Viola finish, comes with tasteful gold hardware; D'angelico tailpiece and Grover Imperial tuners. The details of the control knobs are absolutely on the spot! Check out the custom "cupcake" volume and tone control and the super cool chickenhead pickup switch.

This guitar comes with an original case.