D Angelico Guitars of America Excel EXL -1SH

Standard from the box Korean EXL-1SH Natural finish see other posts for detailed description. Came with hard shell case

This is a wonderful Jazz instrument! It's as good as an L-5 at about 1/5 of the cost. It's very rich but also is punchy, primarily depending on the amp I'm using(1963 Princeton Reverb or 1963 Ampeg B15 with JBL speaker, both of which I purchased new). No problems with feed back.

The guitar was set up by J Hale Music, so I don't know how it was from the factory. When it arrived it was perfect! Action is great, intonation perfect. Only problem that I had was I had to adjust the tension screws on the machines for it to hold tuning, which in the scheme of things is no big deal

I gig with this instrument on a regular basis. Can't beat Grovers or the Kent Armstrong humbucker. Only time will tell about the finish, but I've played through the neck finish on many a Gibson.

I wanted to buy one directly from D'Angelico, but never got a response to my emails or even a return phone call.

I've been playing for over 50 years. Over the years I've owned many Gibsons,ES-5, Byrdland, L5 CES,347,335,330. This Korean instrument plays and sounds as nice as any Gibson I've ever owned. At my age I didn't want to spend the money on another Gibson and bought this one from Jeff at J Hale Music. It arrived set up and ready to play from the box.

This is a large, 17" arched top guitar. The top and back are not carved. I believe the top is spruse with maple sides and back. The fingerboard is ebony and the peghead looks like a rosewood overlay.

The appearance is stunning. The sunburst is perfect as is the whole guitar from the gold talipiece to the diamond on the back of the headstock.

This is a single pickup guitar with the tone and volume on the pickguard.

The frets are jumbo and very smooth and well finished. Grover tuners with a beautiful inlay on the headstock.

I play jazz and this guitar is perfect. I have played a lot of guitars but none play like a D'angelico.

Smooth, easy to play with amazing action. It is a jazz guitar and the tone control seems to have a great range.

The setup was fair, the intonation was right on but the neck needed a professional adjustment and a bit of fret tweaking to make it just right.

Nothing else was needed. Actually one could play this guitar right out of the box but I am picky.

I bought this direct for D'angelico so I could afford a professional setup at Milwakee's Finest Guitars.

It is a D'angelico, the guitar one might dream about. But... at these prices you could play it all the time.

buttons are solid and the finish seems quite good.

Never neede a repair.

I have lots of arch and carved tops. I have been playing guitar for over 40 years. I believe these will be hard to get in the future but it is a guitar that one could get attached to.

I have played a lot of very expensive guitars. This $800 monster lives up to all of them. Including some $5000 hand made guitars.

The case is a sturdy but not too glamorous TKL.

A limited Deluxe Production of only 200 guitars this beauty has a 17" body width with a 3" depth. The mother of pearl / abalone purfling & inlay work make this guitar breathtaking to look at. A floating Kent Armstrong pickup with a volume & tone control
Each guitar comes with a certificate of Authenticity depicting its exact number within 200 made.

The tone is transparent. Nice sustain but lacking brightness. I owned a Dell Arte Frank Hicks archtop and that was a solid wood archtop and the sound was way better when it wasn't amplified. When amplified the guitar delivers a nice jazz tone

Action was nice out of the box. I did notice a couple of flaws. The pickguard had a blemish and the back had a small blemish. I didn't like how they inlayed on this guitar. If you look at the D'angelico logo you will notice that it's not actually inlayed into the wood but glassed over. That's BS! That's lazy Korean work shop quality! But this is not a $5000 guitar.

For the money it's a pretty good buy. Is it as good as a new Gretsch? maybe. Is it as good as a new Gibson L5, Hell NO!!!

Take a look at the two reviews before this one. Hmm, features are reported differently aren't they!? Well, this is a 17" maple archtop with a pressed spruce top and one (1) mounted standard humbucker. The previous reviewer has an EXL-1DH, which is a 16" double humbucker guitar. The SH (single humbucker) has a 25.5" scale, 1 11/16" nut, ebony bridge, gold plated brass taipiece, and lots of other lovely appointments. It's a beautiful guitar, made by human beings who happen to be of Korean descent. Or at least, I presume they live there - close to the workshop and all.

Absolutely classic electric jazz archtop tone. Gibson L-5CES vibe in spades. I am using it primarily with an Acoustic Image Clarus 2R into a Redstone RS10 cabinet. But I also run a silverface Fender Princeton Reverb. It is clean, quiet, warm, lush, with a hint of brightness in the high trebles when strung with flatwound (TI Swing) strings. It is nicely controllable according to where you pick between the neck and bridge; it can get nicely bright and strummy.

Acoustically, this is also a really enjoyable guitar. It rings and resonates, and is a little warmer and quieter than a fully carved top archtop with no routed pickup. But it makes a lovely sound and is fun to play unplugged. This was a really pleasant surprise and it translates into a feel of quality, and the stunning electric tone too.

Had to lower the bridge just a tad. Otherwise, good nut, perfect intonation, perfect frets, hard to quibble with anything. Tiny blemish on end of fretboard on the side, under the finish. Beautiful woods. Smoothly operating tuners. No complaints at all.

It's an archtop, so it's reasonably delicate. But it's durable for its type. Strap buttons... would prefer the one on the neck side to be on the rim driven into the neck block, not the back. It needs a straplock there if you're going to stand up. But the buttons themselves are wider than normal and that's a good thing.

Friendly, just slow. They were hammered by their direct online sales and fantastic blowout prices.

How can a guitar like this, which inspires in the sonic, visual, and tactile realms and costs one half to one third of its peers be anything BUT a 10?? I am selling my L-5.

Hear a short demo at:
http://www.soundclick.com/rogerplacer

I am reviewing a 2006 D'Angelico EXS-DH1 that I foolishly purchased on line from a reputable dealer. This guitars spec can be found on the D'Angelico web site but for the record: Made in Korea, Top is laminated spruce with flame maple back and sides. It is a 16' archtop with floating rosewood bridge and gold jazz tail piece. Neck is maple with ebony board. Two Kent Armstrong humbuckers w/three position selector switch. Two volume and two tone controls. Mother of pearl inlays and non-locking gold tuners. This is a very pretty guitar. Lots of "BLING" effect, very nice to look at. Good weight and well balanced.

I purchased this guitar because I wanted a good inexpensive jazz box. I live in an area where I have to drive quite a ways to try out guitars so did not take the time to shop around. I have been playing for a number of years and have always wanted to own a D'Angelico. So, when I saw this on line for $1200 I made an impulse purchase and regreted it as soon as it arrived. This guitar just did not have the jazz sound I was looking and hoping for. I could get some jazz tone with just the neck pick up selected and the tone turned off but again, not the sound I'm used to hearing in a jazz guitar. The sound in general was ok but I didn't need the second pick up and didn't like the neck pick up much. I could have lived with it but something was rattleing badly. I think it was the bridge pick up but in any case, it drove me nuts. I tried adjusting everything but could not eliminate the rattle. It would crop up at the worst times and I couldn't focus on my playing. After about a month of trying to get rid of the rattle I'd had enough and traded it in for an Eastman. I spent a bunch more cash but it was worth it. The Eastman is the guitar of my dreams. Check out THAT review if your shopping for an archtop.

Guitar was set up well, nice action and good feel to the neck. Body was high gloss and the maple back was very pretty. Binding top and bottom and neck made the guitar look very high class. Gold knobs and tail piece made this guitar a real looker. But again-THAT RATTLE, AHHHHHHHH. Maybe I just got lemon but feel you can do much beterr for less money. I should have bought a Samick-JZ. That would be my recommendation if you want to spend less than say $700 for a good jazz box.

Didn't own it long enough to say but it seemed solid.

I have been playing since 1966. I wish I had played this before I bought it. Maybe that is the lesson here. Fact is, I just was not at all happy with this guitar. I bought it because it "looked" great. I've never done that before and never will again. I own or have owned a number of guitars. My main guitars now are the Eastman for jazz, a US Masters LeGrand Legend-strat style( check these out-man oh man!!better than Fender!) and a Warmoth Tele with Duncan humbuckers that I made, I also own a Breedlove and a Taylor NS-nylon. So I'm covered pretty well. I also own a Hofner Beatle bass-had to have one! As I said, maybe I got a lemon but I will never buy Korean made D'Angelico again. Play before you pay and do your research. My final assessment-this guitar was a waste of time and money!

From the webpage:
Neck: Selected hard maple, ivoroid neck binding, 25.5" scale, Ebony fingerboard, Nut Width: 1 11/16", 22 frets Mother of pearl and abalone split-block inlays, Mother of Pearl D'Angelico Logo and Excel inlays on headstock, Multi-ply black and white binding, Genuine stained wood overlay on headstock, Gold-plated Grover Imperial tuners
Body: 17" wide, 3" deep, single-cutaway body with select spruce top Flamed maple back and sides, Multi-ply black and white binding on body and single-ply bound F-holes, Ebony bridge and saddle assembly with mother of pearl inlays, Solid brass hinged and polished Excel tailpiece, Mock tortoise "stairstep" pickguard with black and white binding
Electrical / Hardware Specifications: Floating, single mounted humbucking pickup by Kent Armstrong (gold-plated), Controls: 1 volume, 1 tone, pickguard-mounted Gold-plated 1/4" output jack

It has an wonderful sound. This is the best thing about the guitar. I was blown away, given the price. It sounds better than many Gibsons three times the price.

It is a jazz guitar. I can see a blues player finding much to admire about this guitar as well, but it is made for jazzers.

The sound is dark and bright in all the right places. The single mounted PU produces a great amplified sound but the guitar also has an amazing acoustic tone, much better than I have heard on other archtops w/ mounted PUs. In fact, it sounds as good as or better acoustically than many archtops w/ floating pickups.

I am not sure about the factory settings. I bought from Jeff Hale online, and he set it up perfectly and packaged it: it was spectacular just out of the box. If you buy a guitar online, defintely use a trustworthy store or salesman (Jeff Hale is as good as it gets: I've dealt w/ many 'online' monsters and was happy to find someone I can trust).

The action is amazing: very low and absolutely no popping or dud frets.

The finish is beautiful. It looks and plays like a high-end archtop. It IS a high end archtop, just for a third of the price.

too new to tell, but everything seems very solid. It is very good w/ feedback (better than most archtops), so I do not anticipate having problems when I play live.

Haven't needed any support

I would give it a 10 except for one aesthetic quibble. The tailpiece produces a nice sound but it is very ugly: too gold and too bright. An ebony tailpiece would have made this guitar much more beautiful.