Marchione Custom 15 Archtop Preowned 2016

By now you know the admiration I have for Stephen Marchione’s instruments. His instruments are incredibly expressive, dynamic, with impeccable artistry and craftsmanship.

The arrival of a Marchione in the shop is always cause for excitement, and we pretty much have a guitar on order from him all the time. This particular instrument is back from a collection, and is in near-unplayed condition.

This Marchione archtop is absolutely stunning, a superlative world class guitar that has everything you could possibly want from an archtop instrument. It is both a museum piece and an eminently playable guitar. Beautiful to look at, with Stephen’s distinctive aesthetic sense, and wonderful to play. In your hands, this guitar feels like an extension of you. Everything feels just right, from the 15 inch body to the characteristically wonderful softV/full C Marchione neck.

Stephen somehow made this guitar with perfect tonal balance across its entire fretboard. Most archtops I have ever played struggle with such balance, and tend to sound better in certain regions of the neck. Thanks to Marchione's craftsmanship, and a little magic, you cannot find a compromised note anywhere on the fretboard.

It has a custom Marchione humbucker made by DiMarzio. Unlike most archtops, with knobs mounted through the pick guard, this instrument has both volume and tone wheels under the pick guard. I really like wheels on archtops because I find most often that once you settle on the tone and volume for the music you are playing, you then leave the controls alone. Having the controls under the pick guard makes for a sleek look, gets the volume and tone controls out of the way, yet still provides very easy access should you need to make adjustments. And of course, as with all Marchione guitars, the wiring is mil spec, with the highest quality pots and wire. I also love the sound port, which really makes playing the guitar acoustically an intimate experience.

This guitar is just stunning in every way. It's a masterfully accomplished artwork that is also a joy to play. Sleek, flawless, and dynamically responsive to every musical nuance, this guitar is one of the finest archtops I have played.

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.