2002 D'Angelico Vestax NYL6 Sunburst

John D’Angelico hand-built guitars in his New York shop for some 40 years until his death in 1964. His superb craftsmanship and fine sense of aesthetics raised his instruments to a level not obtainable in factory-made guitars. His lifetime production was around 1150 guitars and his premier model was the New Yorker, of which he made about 300 examples. Late in his life, he concentrated primarily on the 18″ New Yorker cutaway, a similarly ornamented 17″ New Yorker Special, and the cutaway 17″ Excel.

After his death, his designs were licensed to several manufacturers, the best of whom was Vestax of Tokyo, where their production was supervised by the legendary Japanese luthier Hidetato Shiino. The Vestax D’Angelicos are universally considered the best of the licensed copies, which is good to know since 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. Vestax D’Angelicos are played today by Phil Upchurch, Russell Malone, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, among other notable players. Vestax is not exporting them from Japan any longer and they are getting very hard to find.

This particular NYL6 Special is a strikingly beautiful guitar. It features a solid German spruce top, carefully matched Maple back and sides in a dramatic sunburst finish, and a solid Maple neck. The parallel block inlays on the fretboard are perfectly compatible with the full ivoroid body binding and heel cap, as are the enclosed gold Grover Imperial tuners and the cool script inlaid logo and “New Yorker” design on the blackface headstock—even the truss rod cover contributes to the visual effect! With its high gloss finish and deep cutaway, its classic good looks make it stand out in a crowd, but it’s the ringing, balanced sound that will make other musicians turn around to check it out.

I wish I could give you more definitive information about this near mint guitar, but it’s a way more sophisticated instrument than the vintage Gibsons which I usually play and sell. I am, therefore, resorting to quoting extensively an expert review from the internet published in 2002 when the NYL6 first came out:

D’Angelico NYL-6 Special Guitar
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 1, 2002 – BY RUSSELL CARLSON

I’ve been spending a lot of time playing D’Angelico’s new NYL-6 Special guitar....Now contracting the Japanese Vestax corporation to build their guitars, D’Angelico the company has perhaps lost its old-school, custom-shop charm. D’Angelico guitars, on the other hand, haven’t been sucked dry of character and are lovely instruments, both physically and sonically.

Today, as in the old days of D’Angelico, the company’s most popular guitar is its New Yorker model, a full-size, 17-inch archtop with tasteful art-deco accents, from the brass stairstep tailpiece to the generous portion of gently curving maple at the headstock. The NYL-6 Special is the latest in the line of New Yorker models D’Angelico has added to its roster since Vestax began building guitars for D’Angelico in 1988. It was introduced in 2002 as a streamlined version of the popular D'Angelico NYL-2. However, the modifications were modest and essentially cosmetic, with the NYL-6 featuring rectangular mother-of-pearl inlays instead of split-blocks, less elaborate binding, and a less figured grade of maple for the body. Otherwise, the NYL-6 Special was built with the same exacting standards that characterized the whole line of D'Angelico guitars made by Vestax and which established their reputation for very fine, top quality production.

It’s a sturdy box: a 17" hollowbody archtop cutaway with a single floating humbucker pickup, formed with maple sides and back and a solid German spruce top with f-holes that ring full without amplification. Finger-picking my way through Sir Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird”-a super tune to test how a guitar blends the harmonies of notes in multiple octaves-I was pleased with how the pedal tones sustained and how the individual notes still remained distinct. All this with flatwound strings, too. Imagine what she’d sound like with a set of D’Addario phosphor-bronze acoustic strings. Or maybe it’d be hot to string it up with those Hermaphroditic acoustic-electric strings DR makes by hand. I think so, because any chance to preserve this guitar’s acoustic properties when it’s amplified should be taken.

After plugging in the NYL-6 Special, I warmed up the Fender Deluxe, rolled the guitar’s tone knob back about a third of the way and played along to the old Decca recordings of the Mills Brothers, mellowing out my room with a glowing tone that complemented my beloved Brothers’ harmonies perfectly. I could almost smell the Brylcreem. Laid-back strumming is nice, but you can really dig into chords on this archtop and get some deep, rich, ballsy sounds in the lower range. Most of us want to play more expressively and use the guitar as a front-line instrument, however. If that’s your thing, the NYL-6 Special won’t disappoint.

The three-piece maple neck-22 frets long at a 25 1/2-inch scale with a 1 11/16-inch nut width plays and feels fine. Digging your fingers into the ebony fingerboard while playing leads will add subtle nuances to your lines. Simply put, the guitar responds well to what you do, and the floating humbucker doesn’t color the sound so much as distort your measured inflections-or cover up your mistakes! A quick word on intonation: the bridge and adjustable saddle are made of ebony and the tuners are Grover Imperials. Worry not.

At $3,795 list [note: in 2002!], the NYL-6 Special is a great alternative to the much more expensive originals built by Johnny himself, but the brand name still stands for excellence.

Whichever master luthiers made this guitar built for quality, “for the ages,” as artists say. As one might expect with a dreadnought guitar, this is a large and rather heavy instrument, with a full lower bout and a full body. The action is very fast and comfortable, at a hair under 3/32” at the 12th fret low E, and it plays as smooth as silk. There are no cosmetic or structural items to report: it is essentially in unplayed condition and is a truly spectacular-looking instrument, but it is still made for performance. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, it will pass into the hands of a player able to make music and turn heads for decades to come.

The included original deluxe hard shell case is also virtually like new. The discreet D’Angelico name plate looks cool, the five latches work perfectly, the key is included, the lining is spotless, and structurally it is solid as a rock. It is an ideal complement for this excellent guitar—and of course offers outstanding protection.

Buyer pays a flat rate of $55 for insurance and shipping to the lower 48 states; shipping costs elsewhere will be negotiated as necessary. Payment by Paypal is preferred; cashier’s checks are acceptable, but checks must clear before the guitar will be shipped.

I have made every effort to describe and illustrate this guitar and case with scrupulous accuracy. Please check out the pictures and ask any questions you might have before offering to purchase it. Its return will not be accepted unless it can be shown that it was egregiously misrepresented in this listing.

Thank you for your interest in this spectacular guitar.

Specifications:
Body - Full sized original "New Yorker" style (17" lower bout)
Pressed curved solid German spruce top with F-holes
Maple back and sides
Multiple black and white body binding
25.5" scale ebony fingerboard with white binding and 22 frets
14° pitch peghead with pearl "D'Angelico" and "New Yorker" inlays
Original dual coiled (humbucker) pickup
Controls - 1 volume, 1 tone mounted on the pickguard
Output - 1/4 phone jack mounted on the side of the body
Adjustable compensated ebony saddle on ebony bridge case
Original "New Yorker" style brass trapeze tailpiece
Grover Imperial tuning machines (Gold)
Maple Neck 
Ebony fretboard with parallel MOP inlays
Original "New Yorker" style solid Rosewood pickguard with white binding
Fretboard Radius: 10"
Neck Width: 0.872" at the 1st fret, 0.953" at the 12th fret
Nut Width: 1.712"
Nut material: Bone