Standel 811-S 1968 - Sunburst. Uber Rare. By Sam Koontz. Museum Specimen .

STANDEL  ·  MODEL 811-S

Deluxe Artist Line·  Built by Sam Koontz — 1968

“Standel”-branded, very early example  ·Serial No. 10200

From the International Guitar Museum — the largest Standel collection in the world

This is one of the rarest guitars Sam Koontz ever built. The Model 811-S belongs to the Deluxe Artist Line — the most elaborate, most expensive, and most sparingly produced tier in the entire Standel/Harptone catalog.

As I have said many times: Standel guitars are the most underrated and undervalued instruments in the entire vintage market. A top-of-the-line Artist example like this one is the single strongest argument I can make for why that is about to change.

Why This Guitar Matters — The Koontz Story

Most players know “Standel” as an amplifier name. Bob Crooks founded the company in Temple City, California in 1953, and after a few half-hearted attempts to enter the guitar business, he connected with the Harptone company of Newark, New Jersey — a respected case maker with some guitar-building background. Harptone commissioned a New Jersey luthier named Sam Koontz to design an entire line of hollowbody guitars and to build the production line itself, including some of the machinery used to make them.

That detail matters. Koontz was not a factory hand. He was a master archtop builder working in the direct lineage of John D’Angelico and Jimmy D’Aquisto — a name now spoken in the same breath as those legends and Elmer Stromberg. His calling card was the distinctive “Koontz Crown” headstock, inspired by D’Angelico, and he was a genuine innovator: he devised sliding f-hole and soundhole doors to fight feedback on his archtops, the first of which is owned by jazz great Pat Martino. He was so devoted to his materials that he traveled to Germany to hand-select the tonewoods for his instruments.

Then there is scarcity. According to the best documentable data, only about 300 Standel/Harptone guitars were ever built, all between 1967 and 1969, across roughly twenty catalog models in three tiers — the Deluxe Artist Line (the 1000, 900, and 800 series, including this 811-S), the Deluxe Line (the 500 and 700 series), and the Standard Line (the 600 and 400 series). The Artist Line sat at the very top: the most ornate, the most costly, and the most sparingly made. Harptone-branded examples come from roughly 1967 into 1968; Standel branding followed in 1968–69, since it took the company about eight months to get its own label onto the guitars. That makes this Harptone-labeled 811-S, Serial No. 10200, a genuinely early example of the rarest line.

And here is the part collectors are missing: after 1970, Koontz returned to Linden, New Jersey and hand-built fewer than 200 archtops under his own name — instruments now commanding prices up to $50,000 and rarely surfacing for sale. Those celebrated guitars grew directly out of the work he did here, for Harptone and Standel. This 811-S came from the same hands, the same eye, and the same German tonewoods, just a few years earlier — and it can still be acquired for a fraction of that. The market simply has not connected the two yet.

These guitars were also unlucky in their timing. Introduced just as solid bodies were surging back, they became one of the great “lost” instruments of the 1960s almost as soon as they appeared. Had they arrived a few years earlier, they would be household names today.

About This Guitar

A full-depth, single-Florentine-cutaway hollowbody — a true 17-inch jazz box, 3¼ inches deep — with a carved flame maple top over flame maple back and sides. The one-piece shaping of the back echoes Koontz’s archtop work directly. Every appointment here is full Deluxe Artist specification: an ebony fingerboard with pearl block inlays, the pearl-inlaid Koontz Crown headstock, a gold-plated trapeze tailpiece, an adjustable ebony bridge, a bound tortoise pickguard, and the deluxe control layout — separate tone and volume for each pickup plus a master volume. Being fully hollow, with no center block, it speaks with the airy, woody voice of an Epiphone Casino or Gibson ES-330: strong bass, full tone, and just enough jangle from the twin Rowe/DeArmond integrated pickups. Exactly what a true 1960s guitar should sound like.

Specifications

Maker / Year

Sam Koontz at the Harptone factory, Newark, NJ — 1968

Model / Line

Standel 811-S — Deluxe Artist Line (rarest tier)

Branding

“Standel”

Serial No.

10200

Body

Full hollowbody, single Florentine cutaway; 17″ × 21″ × 3¼″; one-piece shaped back

Top

Carved flame maple

Back & Sides

Flame maple

Finish

Three-tone sunburst

Neck

Mahogany, very slim radius

Fingerboard

Ebony with pearl block inlays; 21 frets; scale 24¾″

Headstock

“Koontz Crown” with pearl inlay

Pickups

Two Rowe/DeArmond integrated, individually adjustable pole pieces

Controls

3-way toggle; separate tone & volume per pickup; master volume

Hardware

Grover Rotomatic tuners (silver); gold-plated trapeze tailpiece; adjustable ebony bridge

Binding

5-ply body binding; 3-ply bound f-holes; bound neck and headstock; bound tortoise pickguard

Nut Width

1⅝″

Case

Original hard shell case (OHSC)

Condition

Presents in very good vintage condition, complete and original throughout, consistent with light period play wear. Maintained in climate-controlled, museum-grade conditions. Includes the original hard shell case (OHSC).

Provenance Statement

This specimen is offered directly from the exhibit collection of the International Guitar Museum, Durham, North Carolina.

From the Richard Davis Collection now on exhibition at IGM (International Guitar Museum):   This instrument comes from the Richard Davis Collection — one of the world’s largest and most deeply curated private assemblages of vintage and custom instruments: more than 900 guitars and 200 amplifiers spanning 225+ brands from 12 countries, assembled over 27 years of purposeful, scholarly collecting, and home to the largest gathering of Standel/Koontz guitars anywhere. This is not inventory that passed through a dealer’s hands. It is a documented piece from a single, serious collection — selected, authenticated, and preserved by one curator.

Why provenance matters now. The market has spoken decisively on what documented provenance is worth. At Christie’s landmark Jim Irsay sale in March 2026, instruments with documented collection history realized $94.5 million — 136% above estimate — confirming what serious collectors already knew: a guitar’s story, chain of custody, and the collection it comes from are inseparable from its value. Single-owner pieces from major curated collections command meaningful premiums over otherwise comparable instruments, and that gap is widening.

Institutional-grade documentation. This instrument is accompanied by a formal Certificate of Authenticity and a transferable Title of Ownership registered with the International Musical Instrument Registry (IMIR), Luxembourg — providing clear chain of custody and documentation of a standard normally reserved for museum deaccessions.

When you acquire from the INTERNATIONAL GUITAR MUSEUM, you acquire the provenance with the instrument. That value transfers with the title — and it does not expire.

This is a chance to own one of the rarest examples Sam Koontz ever built — before the rest of the market does the math.

Available exclusively from the professionally curated, internationally renowned Richard Davis Collection — accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity and Title of Ownership issued by the International Musical Instrument Registry (IMIR).

CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY

Rare Vintage Guitar Authentication

Authentication No. IGM-1968-811S-10200

Standel Model 811-S — Deluxe Artist Line

Built by Sam Koontz, 1968  ·  “Standel” label  ·Serial No. 10200

This certifies that the instrument described above is an authentic Standel Model 811-S Deluxe Artist Line hollowbody guitar, designed and hand-built by master luthier Sam Koontz at the Harptone factory, Newark, New Jersey, in 1968. It carries the original “Standel” label. One of only approximately 300 Standel/Harptone guitars built between 1967 and 1969 — and a member of the rarest, most elaborate Deluxe Artist tier — it was built by the same hands responsible for the celebrated Koontz archtops now ranked alongside the work of John D’Angelico, Jimmy D’Aquisto, and Elmer Stromberg.

This instrument has been examined, authenticated, and documented by the International Guitar Museum and is accompanied by a transferable Title of Ownership registered with the International Musical Instrument Registry (IMIR), Luxembourg. It has been maintained in climate-controlled, museum-grade conditions and presents in very good original condition throughout, consistent with honest period play wear.

Certified this 13th day of June, 2026.

James Richard Davis

Founder & Curator, International Guitar Museum

— OFFICIAL SEAL —

International Musical Instrument Registry

Luxembourg