16-B Custom Sycamore

Serial #S2144

This gorgeous and unique archtop began life a few years ago when two gentlemen appeared at Savannah’s Benedetto workshop to take a tour of the facility. Both were woodworkers from rural Southwest Georgia with interest in making an archtop guitar. They owned Bob’s Making An Archtop Guitar book and were thrilled to meet Bob personally, who was working that day and set aside his tools to give the gentlemen a tour. They discussed different wood sources and species, and presented Bob with some beautiful regional Sycamore – enough for a back sides, and a neck. The material spent a year in our drying room before Bob pulled it and designated for a 16-B.

The finished guitar is a 16″ x 2 1/2″ body with a lovely Sycamore back and matching sides. The neck, too, is Sycamore. Bob choose an aged, Alaskan Sitka spruce top, plain maple bindings, and our standard ebony appointments. Since it was an unusual guitar from the start, Bob incorporated some beautiful Maple Burl veneers for the headstock and heel cap. He filled the natural bark inclusions with granulated turquoise, giving the already eye-popping pallete a river of color. Adding gold Gotoh tuners, a B-6 pickup and an ebony EPS tailpiece, the finished instrument is not only a natural beauty but an extraordinarily rich gig worthy guitar. The Sycamore, closely related in weight and stiffness to our traditional European maple, sounds like a vintage instrument that’s been played for decades. The guitar is lightweight and balanced.

Warm, mid-rangy, and rich, it’s Pure Benedetto!

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Photos by Stephanie Ward