United Franz Melita Archtop Electric Guitar 1950’s - Natural

Here is an excellent playing example..

Of a New Jersey United made Archtop from the early 50s. United was a supplier of guitar bodies for D’Angelico for their electric guitar line in the 1950s. The owner of United was a former employee of D’Angelico.

We acquired this guitar from the estate of a deceased 96 year old professional guitarist. He gigged professionally in the Philadelphia area for many years and also used this in his lesson studio.

This guitar features one original Franz pickup on a blonde natural body. It actually plays very well as it sits with a low tight action.

I believe the owner added an early pat pending Melita Syncro Sonic bridge. (He resided in Philadelphia and the Melita was born here). The bridge is fully functional but missing one of the top sliders and attachment screw (see pics)

The body bindings suffered the typical “binding rot“ fate of many United/Premier/Gretsch/Guild guitars of this period These companies all sourced their bindings from the same supplier on the East coast.

The neck is straight with a good functioning truss rod. (Missing two screws on the truss cover plate) The action is low and has a good neck angle. Original frets show moderate wear but overall still good thanks to flat wound strings. The body has some superficial cracks to the outer plywood but these are age related and nothing inhibiting to its structural integrity (see pics)

The Franz pickup sounds fantastic with original volume and tone pots still intact. This guitar will ship in a newer dreadnaught hard case. (Not pictured).

If you put a little love into this rare instrument you will have a real vintage gem These United guitars are not very common and this one has a one owner pedigree. It was loved and played professionally for several years

Shipping will be $100 in the Upper 48 US states Feel free to message with any questions and I’ll respond Thanks Joe