Napolitano Jazz archtop 1998 Natural

Beautiful, nearly pristine blond archtop by Arthur Napolitano, a central-New Jersey luthier known for his jazz guitars. In excellent shape, showing very little playwear on the fingerboard or frets; and no noticeable scratches or buckle swirls on the body. There are fine lines in the finish here and there, as to be expected. The action is responsive but not low enough to cause fret buzzing. One knob under the pickguard, for volume. The electronics are in fine shape, and the tone warm and somewhat woody as you’d expect from this pickup. Case in very good shape. Strung with flatwounds. It still has the unused name-and-address tag on the handle.

I am selling the Napolitano because it is a near exact blend of two archtops I’ve owned a good while, a Sadowsky and a blond Dale Unger/Martin archtop, all three exquisite for fingerstyle. I’d like to own all three but can’t justify that.  And need to hold to this price.

The guitar was customised a bit, with an ebony fingerboard ($145), tailpiece ($225), and hand-fitted bridge ($65).

--Laminated maple body with birdseye-figured back.
--1 3/4" nut width
--Body measures 3" deep and 17" at the lower bout.
--25"-scale flame maple neck
--Kent Armstrong floating pickup.
-- Black Schaller tuners.
--All original with no mods, breaks, or repairs.