Marchione Vintage Spruce Hardtail

To paraphrase a master car designer- "any toaster can make toast but it takes a very special toaster to make toast that you covet" Marchione's Vintage S Style guitars are his interpretations of a familiar design platform that are handmade with the same love and attention that Stephen gives his superb archtops. They are guitars that you want to covet and lust over. From the finest personal wood selection, body contouring and neck shape, to the outrageously beautiful finishes and  final detailing they are the masterbuilder's Masterbuilt guitars.

I’ve wanted a spruce body S-style guitar since I played a Pensa-Suhr in the 80’s that was made for a friend of mine. It blew me away. The problem is that very few builders have access to, or are willing to part with a piece of archtop-grade spruce big enough for a project like this. When I talked to Stephen about it, not only was he willing to go for it, he actually had worked on that guitar while he was at Pensa. And, he was ready to use some of his master grade spruce. We talked for a long time about every particular – what kind of neck, which pickups, etc. Well, it has arrived, and I’m completely and utterly knocked out.

From a purely physical point of view, it is absolutely stunning. The spruce body’s silky grain reminds me of a fine archtop. The sugar maple neck is richly figured, and appears almost 3D when it’s move through the light.

Then I picked it up. It seems to float. At six pounds, it reminds me of those great vintage lightweight pine telecasters from the 50’s. Unplugged, the spruce makes it extremely resonant. Electrically, it’s oozing with woody sweetness, and very responsive to your touch. One of the things that  comes through to me is a gentle midrange scoop that really shines when the 5 way has the front two pickups on. The “strat” “quack” is not hard or brittle. It’s sweet, percussive, and has just the right amount of brightness. The bridge pickup is much more dynamic than you’d expect on an S style. It’s more Tele-like, tonally. As with every Marchione, you’ll find the finish and fret work to be impeccable. If you are looking for a special guitar with a special voice to add to your tonal palette, this spruce body Marchione should be checked out.

If you'd like to find out more about this item, just call or e-mail me. It would be my pleasure to talk to you about it.

ABOUT MARCHIONE GUITARS
At one time in his life, Stephen Marchione spent six hours a day playing the guitar. Now he makes them—in fact, since beginning his career as a guitar maker in 1989, Stephen has created more than three-hundred guitars for some of the best guitar players in the world. The journey from high-school jazz devotee to “the finest young guitar maker working today,” according to Chamber Music America, was a rich and complicated one. After establishing his own brand and working for several years in New York, Stephen Marchione moved to Houston, Texas, where he builds his entire family of guitars, but Marchione has also studied privately since 1994 with Manhattan-based violin maker Guy Rabut. "I try to build one violin a year to keep my chops up" Says Marchione. He feels that building classical guitars and violins broadens his understanding of top thicknessing, tap tuning, and surface preparation. On the other hand, building electric guitars has taught him the importance of the fretboard in a player's appreciation of a guitar. Marchione is considered one of a very few leading-edge pioneers in the design of guitars that combine elements of both jazz and classical construction. This well-rounded approach contributes to the magic one finds in a Marchione instrument, a magic that is at once very broad yet truly individual.