Gary Rizzolo, Teardrop Archtop (ART, OBJECTS 2022)

Photos:

Ren Rizzolo

The Teardrop ‘New Yorker model’ Archtop guitar was first made in 1957 by new York luthier John D’Angelico for Peter Giradi who was in a group called ‘The Teardrops’ After D’Angelico passed away his apprentice James D’Aquisto carried on, modernizing the design of the Archtop. He made a ‘Solo model’ Teardrop Archtop guitar in 1993. Being influenced by these makers I developed a design for a Teardrop guitar, which has an original outline for not only the body, in that it is a smaller teardrop shape than the original. This guitar has links to both my place of birth and my fathers. My father was born in Veneto in the north of Italy, where some of the worlds best spruce grows. ‘Ciresa’ is one company in Italy which sources spruce for instruments. During a visit there I selected the top wood for this guitar. The Winged Lion the symbol of Veneto is inlaid on the headstock of the guitar with the Venetian lion in Mother of Pearl and hand engraved details. I was born in Tasmania and selected the unique endemic species Huon Pine for the back and sides and Tasmanian fiddleback blackwood on the neck of this guitar. The back of the guitar is one piece with some beautiful birds-eye grain and a hand-carved arch. Huon Pine was treated with cynoacrylate which stiffened the back enough to achieve a strong tap-tone. The spruce top is hand carved and tuned with an ‘x’ brace pattern. The fretboard, headstock, bridge and tailpiece are made from Ebony. A unique guitar with hallmarks of New York Italian guitarmakers, the woods and symbols of my fathers Italy plus the woods of my Tasmanian heritage.

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