D Angelico Guitars of America NYSS-3B New Yorker

2008 Vestax D'Angelico NYSS-3B Made in Japan. Contrary to what I've read in forums, these guitar never ceased production. I was informed that they (Vestax) stopped supplying D'Angelico Guitars of America and the shop I purchased it from have been selling them regularly since 2001. Anyway, most of you who are aware of this model will know the specs - solid spruce top, 5-ply flamed maple back and sides, 14 3/4" semi-hollow body with centre block, 24 3/4" scale, ebony board on maple neck (bound), 2 humbuckers, 2 vol 2 tone, brass stairstep tailpiece.

I can honestly say this is one of the finest, if not the finest guitar I've owned. I've been playing mostly rock/blues for over 15 years and recently getting in to jazz. This guitar can do it all. I mainly use it through a Fender Hot Rod Deville and the clean tone is superb. It came strung up with D'Add 11's nickel roundwounds with a plain 3rd - which was great for blues and rock. The pickups are warm, powerful and not muddy at all, very clear. Since I already have a couple of strats and a tele for the rock stuff, I restrung it with Thomastik flatwounds 12's and played through the clean chanel..oh man. The sound is killer. I can get a really nice fat jazz tone using the neck pickup.

No complaints at all. The build quality and finishing are first rate. The set up was very good when I got it but when I restrung it with flats I took it back to the shop to get it set up for 12's.
All the hardware seems fine, nice solid selector switch, smooth pots etc...the back and sides on mine is not as flamed as others I've seen but that doesn't bother me at all.

I haven't had it for too long yet but I can't see it being a problem in any way. I've gigged it a couple of times with my blues band and every time I get it out of the case someone gives me a nice compliment along the lines of 'what a beauty'.

The guys in the store where very helpful. Of course, when you're spending this kind of money you would expect them to be. Apparently two of the guys there own D'Angelico guitars so that's always a good sign, and they did set it up nicely when I put the 12's on it.

This is my favourite guitar ever! Period! It's stylish, sounds great and has one of the nicest necks I've played. Although I've never owned a Gibson, I've played several 335's and other jazzers and for me, there's no comparison. The playability and build quality on my D'Angelico is better than all the Gibsons I tried before finally deciding on this guitar. The only thing I was quite surprised about was the weight; it's actually a lot heavier than I imagined. But then again, this probably adds to the tone. If I were to have this guitar stolen I would definitely get another one.

Check out the web site for features. it's laid out like a 335 but there the resemblance ends. this guitar is head and shoulders above ANY electric guitar that I've ever played. It took me all of two minutes to decide that I wasn't leaving the store without it !!!!!! I'm not a fan of bursts, or wasn't untill I saw this one and I have to say that the artistry of the finish is breathtaking. I love to watch the expression on peoples faces when I open that case. I don't know who made the pups but they sound great. Everyone who has played this thing has raved about it.

I'm a Merle Travis / Chet Atkins finger picker and I've been chasing Country Gents and various semi- hollow bodies for about five years now trying to find my dream guitar and I can now say that the search is over! (my wife remains sceptical). I'm playing through a Budda verbmaster into which I just installed a 15 " Eminence and an old Shobud, also with a fifteen. The sound is rich, full gorgeous . . .superlatives fail me.

Some nitpickig:
1. The set screw for the A string saddle loosens and vibrates. A slight turn with a screwdriver remedies this.(until next time)
2. there is a discernible, though slight, ripple in the purfling around the heelcap and one small portion of the pick guard.
These are very minor but in a guitar in this price range they should not happen.
The rest of the guitar is beyond reproach.

I have no worries. I do most of my own tech work and this thing is well constructed.

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I've been playing for about forty years and have played primarily acoustic guitars, , Collings, Taylor, Santa Cruz,( all amplified for gigging ) and two That I built myself from scratch . I've been playing electric for about five years in search of the Merle / Chet sound and have worked my way through all the major and many of the lesser known brands. and finally settled on an epiphone 335 copy which I ripped apart and replaced all the stock parts and completely rewired and was relatively happy with untill I found the D'angelico.
I'd like to see players start to broaden their horizons regarding brands. We seem to be stuck in GibsonFenderMartin land. In a way it's good for me because I can pick up some great deals on far superior products but it makes for a boring trip to a lot of music stores. It mirrors the rapidly growing homogenization of society and I subscribe to that axiom that variety is the spice of life. Well this guitar has added lots of spice to my life. I'm going to do something I never thought that I'd do and thank a corpoation ( VESTAX ) for producing a very fine product, Happy pickin, Ya'll

This guitar was custom ordered from the factory here in Japan where I am at in 1999. It is black with cream aged binding, chrome hardware including a factory installed Bigsby. It has a solid spruce top with...check this out, highly flamed maple back and sides that has been painted over with the high quality nitro finish!!! You could literally see the flames from the bound F holes! This is how much quality these folks put in their guitars. It has the long scale neck with smaller semi hollowed body. Electronic configurations is similar to my ES 335. It comes with a nice brown alligator style hard case, with a D'Angelico logo on the outside by the handle. Nice touch!

I could simplify this category for you all.

The sound of this instrument had made me think about selling my other electric guitars!!!! All 15 of them. I found this guitar by accident and has been enjoying every minute I spend with it since.

This guitar was built for me, Eventhough it was custom ordered by someone else. Everything fits juuuuuust right.

Not everyone will have the opportunity to find "THE ONE ELECTRIC GUITAR" for them but, as for me....This one is IT! This will definitely be with me 'till the END. This guitar is built to last a lifetime and then some.

I have an extended 1 year warranty transfered to me when I bought it in Ochanomizu Japan. I don't believe I will be needing that for a while. And if so, it will only be for minor adjustments. I called them a couple of times and they were really cool.

I have been playing since I was a weeee little child many moons ago. And had been searching for my "HOLY GRAIL of Guitars" fortunately, unlike many others that failed, my quest is complete. I tell my friends "if you see me smilin' all the time when I play.....this is why".

I just bought a 1999 D'Angelico NySS-3B New Yorker guitar made in Japan under license from Joh D'Angelico's estate. The guitar I bought has a natural spruce top. the guitar has two volume, two tone and a pcikup selector for the two non active humbuckers. The finish is clear black and cream binding, a brass gold plated New Yorker trapeze tailpiece, and Grover Imperial tuners. It is a thinline (1 and 3/4"), semi hollow body guitar. Ebony fingerboard, thin neck, mother of pearl inlays in the fretboard and on the back of the neck where the tuners are. the case is rich leather, looks like alligator, but tooled to look like it, with a cream colored plush interior. It came with a neck adjust tool. The finish and hardware are impeccable.

I play 40's/50's standards, 50-70's rock and roll, blues, cajun, and old and new country and western. Since i play so many types of music, I must have a versatile instruments capable of everything from rich mellow to distorted lead to country twang. I use a Lab L-9 with 4-10" speakers, a Digitech harmonizer, a parametric equalizer, a didgitech IP33B processor, a rotovibe, a vox distortion booster, a Boss DS-1 overdirve, a GR-33 guitar synth and a Korg AX-3 processor. This guitar is the finest sounding guitar I have ever touched. It is lightning fast, very low string capability (even better than a Parker Fly if you can believe that). The tonal pallet is amazing. I play jazz leads, country leads, distorted rock leads, full rhythm, everything imaginable and this guitar sound fabulous in all modes. My hat goes off to the designers/luthiers. I can't find anything I dislike about this guitar. Looks, tone, features, playability, quality, you name it. Before buying this guitar I went to Ed Roman's web site and looked at his comments. He is a Heritage and Gibson dealer, does not sell D'Angelico guitars made in Japan by Vestax, like this one is, but stated they are better than anything Heritage or Gibson makes, period! After playing one and listening to the tone, it is absolutely true. This guitar is the missing holy grail of guitars I have sought for over 35 years. In case you don't know, Brent Mason of Nashville session fame plays one, and even Chet Atkin's backup guitarist owns one - now I know why.

I don't have experience with how the guitar was set up at the factory. Mine came with flat wouunds, which I quickly changed, went to lower gauge string and adjusted the bridge height and bridge pickup height. Everything else is perfect. I don't know where they got the pickups from, but it has a full size jazz guitar sound coming from the neck and what you would want for C&W or rock and roll lead coming from the bridge pickup. Action and finish are flawless, the best I have ever seen, and I've owned some of the best guitars made in the past, Gibson, Heritage, Fender, Alvarez, Yamaha, ESP, etc. Nothing compares. It is the best of the best.

This guyitar is make for live playing. It looks very durable and the finish both on the wood and the gold plating is top notch quality. I changed the gold strap buttons to locking schallers for added security, but the ones that came on it are very adequate I'm sure. Based on the sheer quality of this instrument, you could definitely depend on it and not bring a backup (what could you use to back it?), although I will always bring an extra guitar in case a string breaks during a performance.

I have not dealt with the D'Angelico company except to request local dealership info. I have read on the internet and some other D'Angelico reviews that this company backs their instruments 100%, even paying local luthiers to take care of problems if a customer is afraid to send it anywhere. That's very rare in today's world.

I have been playing for 40 years. I would definitely buy another one if this one were lost or stolen. I don't dislike anything about this guitar. I can't make a comparison with other guitars, it is the best of the best that I have ever played on.