One of Just Fifteen Flat Top Guitars Built by Jimmy D'Aquisto Between 1973 and 1984
This Being One of Ten Dreadnought Sized Guitars

1977 D'Aquisto Flat-Top Delux Dreadnought, Flamed maple stained mahogany with natural spruce top.

Flat-Top. This incredible Dreadnought Guitar was made in 1977 and has a 15 7/8 inch wide and 5 1/4 deep (down to 4 1/3 inches at neck end) European 'flamed' maple body with a beautiful book-matched, two-piece European 'flamed' maple back. D'Aquisto 'braced' two-piece, multi-bound European spruce top with a 4 1/3 x 3 1/4 inch, triple-bound oval sound hole. The top and back of the body have seven-ply white and black binding. One-piece mahogany neck with a very wide 'classical' nut width of just over 1 15/16 inches, a scale length of 25 1/4 inches and a wonderful medium profile. Multi-bound ebony fretboard with 22 original thin frets and small black side markers. Unique 'D'Aquisto' shaped ebony faced headstock with inlaid pearl 'scroll with "D'Aquisto" engraved in black. The headstock has five-ply white and black binding. Black-faced rear of headstock with Individual Schaller M6 machine tuning heads with hexagonal gold-plated buttons. Unique shaped ebony truss-rod cover with two screws. Bone bridge on on unique off-set rectangular shaped ebony tailpiece with the bass side larger than the treble side. Bone bridge pins with inlaid pearl circles. Jimmy D'Aquisto has signed the guitar inside the sound hole in black ink "James L. D'aquisto / 11/9/77 / # 106". There are a couple of light scratch marks on the top and a few very minor and insignificant surface marks on the edges. There is the bare minimum of playing wear to the original frets, otherwise this exceptional instrument is in near mint condition. Housed in a later (eighties) TKL seven-latch, shaped black hardshell case with burgundy plush lining (9.25).

D'Aquisto flat top guitars are a group of 15 guitars made by Jimmy D'Aquisto between 1973 and 1984.

His flat tops are unique and carry a bracing design entirely of his own devising. He made 16 flat top guitars from 1973 to his last in early 1984. He made two types, a grand auditorium and a dreadnought. In general, they were deep guitars with a large oval sound hole. He believed the oval sound hole produced greater projection than the typical round sound hole. They have a strong bass boom and the midrange and clarity expected from a D'Aquisto. Overall, their tonal structure is well-balanced and very suitable for recording. Of course, each of his instruments were custom built and variations were common. A customer would be given names and phone numbers of then current owners so the prospective owner could play existing guitars (Jimmy did not have completed guitars sitting in his shop—they were shipped as soon as they were completed). The prospective customer could then go back to Jimmy and tell him what was liked or what changes were desired; he would then adjust his plans accordingly. Whether the customer requested brilliance or bass, Jimmy would refuse to add a pickguard to the guitar face nor would he consider using any more than minimal bindings on the guitars so as to not reduce the sound possible from his creation. If amplification was desired, he would only consider a floating or non-permanent pickup (for either flat top or archtop), again, so as to not diminish the guitar's sound quality. He used a unique (for his time) off-set rectangular shape for the bridge, with the bass side larger than the treble. He could adjust the amount of bass in the guitar by the way he sized and shaped the bridge.

He numbered his guitars from 101 to 116. Number 101 was a non cutaway auditorium as well as number 111, which he made for Laurie Veneziano and Janis Ian. Numbers 102 to 110 were his dreadnoughts. From 112 to 115, are some of his most beautiful auditorium guitars and the only flat tops he made with a cutaway. Each is a radiant blond color. He used European spruce tops and European maple back and sides for all his flat tops. Ebony for the fret board, bridge, bridge pins, and headstock overlay. His last, 116, is a dreadnought in an unusual tobacco sunburst finished in 1984. D'Aquisto also made a few nylon-string flat top guitars.

The D'Aquisto ledger entry for this guitar reads as follows: "106  02/10/78  Flat Top Delux 16 inch  Sal DiTruca"