The Archtop
The Vienna is built for the most passionate archtop guitar lovers.
The architectural purity of the design gives the guitar a clean shape that presents
the essence of the sound. All design details enhance the beauty and the basic shape
of the guitar. All the proportions are perfectly balanced creating a very dynamic powerful
elegance. Yet this is done without any extrovert features that would distract the eye.
The Vienna is truly a masterpiece of classical guitar maker SCHARPACHguitars.
The building process uses a similar traditional approach of craftsmanship as has been
done hundreds of years by the fine art of violin or cello making. How strange it even
may sound: I was studying the acoustical design principles and starting points
Stradivarius uses for his topplate carving but adapting those to guitar acoustics.
Stradivarius had a slightly different approach then other great makers of that time.
My first Archtop that became widely known to a bigger audience was in the days,
when I was invited by Scott Chinery to participate as a guitarmaker for his
BLUE GUITAR collection. (That was already in 1997)
I was really honoured to be invited as the only maker from Europe, joining
some of the most famous American Archtop makers like Mr. Mark Campellone,
Mr. Bill Comins, Mr. Mark Lacey, Mr. Tom Ribbecke and many more...
Scott Chinery placed a historical order similar like the Royal Families did in the past
and made an unforgettable statement by his tribute to the guitar: commissioning a
very selective group of guitarmakers to honour D'Aquisto by making a blue Archtop.
This unique collection should never be separated as it is a statement, showing the
Art of Archtop-making at the end of the last century.
KEN VOSE writes in his book BLUE GUITAR:
“The Result (the blue guitars) is perhaps the greatest collection of archtops ever made.
Blue guitar celebrates the unique beauty of this unparalleled collection.....
Many of whom (the guitarmakers) have dedicated their lives to finding the place where
Art, Craft and Music converge”
The Vienna
For the Vienna I started to use topplates that I had bought from the widow of A. Lang.
This old stock I must have bought in 1990 or so. Lang was a well-known German
guitarmaker living in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany and died in 1975.
Although some of the woods may have minor visual flaws, it is acoustically far-out
superior to any new wood due to the extreme age. The roughly pre-cut tops do sound
like a bell. I estimate that they have been stored to dry in the workshop of Lang
for more the 40 years. The wood itself would therefore surely be more then 250 years
old. In the time Lang bought his wood, the supply of high quality was no problem.
Mostly I use a bicolour partial gold-plated tailpiece: originally designed and only
available on SCHARPACHArchtops. The tailpiece is cut from a solid block of a specially
selected brass, and is not cast. This method, although considerably more time
consuming and labour intensive, creates a superior quality piece. It takes about
8-10 hours for each part of the tailpiece to be cut, after which it is hand-polished.
It is then is heavily gold-plated using fine jeweller’s techniques as opposed to
industrial plating. The tailpiece also features the engraved bird which symbols the
"S" in Scharpach. The inlays are of massive silver.
The guitar has a powerful and well-balanced acoustic sound and is very easy to play.
It produces just enough bass and strong fat punchy trebles, still with rich harmonics.
The guitar does not have the midrange sound that sometimes is typical for Archtops,
nevertheless it still cuts through. It uses the custom floating Scharpach Jazz
Humbucker with Alnico 3 magnets.
The Vienna Apex
For 2009 the Vienna Apex, a fully acoustic design, is on order for those who accept
no limitations. This model offers no pick-up system and will rely only on the power
of the acoustic sound. Due to the highest tonal demands set, the colour range of
the Vienna Apex is limited to a Natural Blond and a adapted version of Golden Shade.
The Vienna Apex offers a choice of the bicolour tailpiece and the custom open
headstock design with engraved gold-plated covers or a flat headstock with an ebony
tailpiece which may give the guitar a different elegance.
The Vienna Zenith
The Vienna Zenith is a high quality archtop and comes with a flat headstock and a
gold-plated brass tailpiece and our standard custom jazz humbucker.
All colours are available.
Archtop finishes are:
Vienna Sunset: A custom sunburst Vienna.
Vienna Golden: No shades but a beautiful mellow golden yellow.
Vienna Golden Shade: Golden yellow with orange running into brown shades.
Vienna Traditional Brown: inspired by the beautiful browns used by the Cremona Makers
Vienna Natural Blonde: Simply a natural blond with the slightest tint.
Humbucker Recording