All you jazz box aficionados, gather round: we’ve got a contender for the finest Archtop of 1997 on the line here. If it comes from John Buscarino’s shop, you know the guitar’s going to have golden tone, and this Maple-and-Sitka–Spruce beauty has the looks to match. An Artisan Custom, this Archtop has a single Lindy Fralin Humbucker pickup below the fingerboard which cranks out some of the fattest, juiciest tone we’ve seen in a jazz box in a long time.
In this guitar, traditional aesthetics (see the Ivoroid bindings and MOP-and-Abalone parallelogram fret markers) are married to contemporary voicings to give the guitar classic looks and an increased dynamic range. When the low-end warmth and mellowness that we expect from vintage archtops combines with these trebles, rich and bright with a well-defined edge, you get an Archtop perfectly set up for fingerstyle jazz comping and solos. Just under 20 years old, this Artisan Custom is fully opened up and ready for more action!