D'Angelico New Yorker NYL-2 (Vestax) 2002 Natural

This sale is for a 2002 D’Angelico New Yorker NYL-2.  The guitar is natural maple and spruce finish and has a fresh set of Thomastic-Infeld George Benson .012-.053 flatwounds.  These are jazz strings, not rock or country – they do not lend themselves to bending.  The action is as low and comfortable as any guitar I have ever played.  The original Kent Armstrong pickup (a pretty good pickup) is in the case and the superb, custom-wound Tom Short “Steve Bistro Western Swing Floater” is mounted on the guitar.  As the name implies, the pickup is mounted to the pickguard; there are no holes cut in the beautiful top of this jazz-age instrument.  The Tom Short pickup is something very, very special.  More about the sound below.

There is no discernable wear on the guitar and no dents, dings, scratches, or other damage on either the guitar or its closely-fitted alligator-skin case.  I have never taken the guitar out of my temperature/humidity/dust-controlled guitar room.

A little history for those unfamiliar with this jazz icon: John D’Angelico hand-built guitars in his New York shop for some 40 years until his death in 1964.  His lifetime production was around 1150 guitars and his premier model was the New Yorker, of which he made about 300 examples.  After his death, his models were license-built by several manufacturers, the best of whom was Vestax of Tokyo, employing the legendary Japanese luthier Hidetato Shiino.  That makes this guitar the best of the copies (an original New Yorker is worth $40,000 and up today).  Fit and finish are impeccable inside and out – not surprising given the Japanese tradition of quality manufacturing and Shiino-san’s reputation.

I've played a lot of guitars and the D'Angelico NYL-2 is truly a rare and remarkable instrument.  Why is it rare?  1. Vestax D’Angelicos are simply the best, and are the ones that everyone is after, played by Phil Upchurch, Russell Malone, and Kurt Rosenwinkel among other notable players.  2. Vestax is not exporting them from Japan any longer and they are getting hard to find.

The instrument has a AAA spruce top with an ebony fret board – among the finest, closest-grained ebonies I’ve ever encountered.  The neck size is similar to a 60"s Les Paul and C shaped.  The top is pressed into shape rather than carved as the original D’Angelico’s.  The non-carved top, in my opinion, is more uniform but slightly less responsive than a carved top.

Un-amplified its tone is round and has a nice dark flavor (guitar has TI flatwounds).  Using both a 50’s vintage Fender DeLuxe and a 60’s vintage Dual Showman/4-10” cab, the guitar has excellent character and great playability for plectrum or finger style players.  I do not think I have ever before found a combination of sweetness and articulateness that the Tom Short pickup gives.  It makes this my absolute go-to guitar for jazz voicings – and I’ve had some good ones, such as the Gibson L-5 and Tal Farlow models.

Here are some specifications:

• Selected Maple, White neck binding

• 25 1/2" scale Ebony fingerboard, 22 frets

• Pearl ZigZag position markers

• 14°-pitch peghead with pearl "D'Angelico" and "New Yorker" inlays, multiple-ply black and white binding

Body Specifications

• Full sized original "New Yorker" style body (17")

• Pressed curved solid spruce top

• Flame maple back and sides

• Multiple-ply black and white body binding

• F sound holes with white and black binding

Electrical/Hardware Specifications

• Gold-plated hardware throughout

• Grover Imperial machine heads

• Tom Short pickup mounted on pick guard

• Controls : 1 volume, 1 tone

• Output : 1/4 phone jack mounted on body side

• Adjustable ebony saddle on ebony bridge base

• Original "New Yorker" style brass trapeze tailpiece

• Original "New Yorker" style pickguard with black and white binding