The D'Angelico Rifle

Benee Wafers

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For all you Texas shooters and Arizona mando pickers here's a real good one for you you. For a picture of the instrument go to the link provided below.
Check it out.
Benee

The D'Angelico Rifle
How can you resist a story that starts like this:

"It was the D'Angelico that every collector had heard about and that every collector couldn't stop talking about. It was the guitar that none of them had ever seen or ever expected to see, much less get a chance to play. That is, until it was sighted in February..."
Turns out there was a rumor among guitar collectors that the legendary John D’Angelico had build a novelty guitar in the shape of a machine gun, which no one had ever seen. After many years in circulation the rumor turned out to be almost true.
(John D’Angelico lived from 1905 to 1964. He built hand-made arch-top guitars and mandolins that have come to represent the highest standards of excellence in instrument making. During the late 1930s, when production was at its highest he made about 35 instruments per year; over his lifetime, he made about 1,200 instruments.)
Almost, because when the instrument finally turned up, it proved to be a mandolin, not a guitar, and shaped like a rifle, not a machine gun. But it was a D’Angelico for sure. It had been made for a vaudevillian named Pat Valley, probably in the 1940s or 1950s.
The late Scott Chinery purchased the D’Angelico Rifle for his gorgeous collection, saying, "The acquisition of this mythical instrument is a new high point for my collection. Fifteen years ago, I began searching for this elusive treasure. You can only imagine my delight in finally holding this incredible instrument in my hands for the first time. Next to the Moderne [the guitar that is so rare it may have existed only on paper], this is the rarest, most valuable, and distinctly unique fretted instrument in the world."

The whole story is in the Maine Antique Digest.
http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/rifl0700.htm
 
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