One Man’s Quest for His ‘Dream’ Guitar

This is a story about how an accomplished guitarist/producer finally satisfied his personal quest for his “dream” instrument.  

JGT: The instrument the author had been playing and hearing in his head for decades.  To be fair, there are many amazing luthiers who build custom guitars. You may have some searching to find the instrument that ‘talks’ to you.  We hope you are inspired by this story and if you have a ‘dream’ guitar, keep up the search!

First a bit of backstory.  I am a working musician, guitar being my primary instrument these days, albeit I started as a bassist.  I play on average 150 gigs per year covering genres from jazz to blues, rock, and reggae.  My gigs can be solo jazz hits or up to octets, playing my own compositions and standards.  I am 60 years of age and have been playing public venues and private functions since the age of 8, from Carnegie Hall and Broadway to jazz clubs and festivals around the world.  I am also an awarded audio engineer and producer with about 150+ CD projects and dozens of tv/radio commercials in the can.

It’s been a pretty cool ride so far…

Through the years, I’ve bought, sold, traded and missed out on so many instruments that I really can’t put a number on that.  Right now, as I sit writing this, I can count 16 guitar cases in my studio.  As a result of my ‘dual career’ life, my instruments work for a living.  I am not a collector.  If something doesn’t inspire me, perform with me, record or help compose, it goes.  NOTHING is under the bed as an investment.

That should be enough for purposes of ‘cred’.

Let me focus, now.  I own a few guitars considered to be ‘jazz’ guitars, albeit any instrument works for jazz; I assume that you would agree.  It’s in the hands.  On solo gigs, when playing standards or my own ‘jazz’ pieces, I tend to gravitate toward my Gibson L5CT, built for me as a custom order about 15 years back.  It is the finest ‘big box’ I’ve had (until now), having gone through a few L5’s, ES-175’s, etc.  I also play Sadowsky guitars a lot; wonderful instruments…and certainly lots of solid body guitars.  But to be clear, I always pined for a fully hand-made archtop.  Something made specifically for me.  Something that checks all the boxes on my personal archtop ‘hit list’, if you will.  And in my decades of playing hundreds, I’ve never found that precise fit (until now). 

Good golly, I have played everything from builders like D’Angelico, D’Aquisto, Ken Parker, Kim Walker, Ribbecke, Trenier, Manzer, Mirabella, Monteleone, Comins, Unger, Benedetto…and countless others.  And they all are, pretty generally, great instruments made with a lot of love, respect to tradition, care, at times innovation and craftsmanship.  Now and then I have come close to finding that ‘Holy Grail’ archtop (I refer to a couple of insane D’Aquisto’s that Rudy Pensa dangled before my eyes and ears, Rudy the tease…), but most of those times, the prices have been beyond my reach as a player.  Those boxes go to collectors or the few famous cats that can justify such an expense.  But how many players take a $75k+ guitar out on a local trio hit or travel with it to a festival abroad?

I have found that there’s a lot of ‘sameness’ out there with archtops.  Unless you are really breaking the mold, like Ken P’s guitars (phenomenal guitars), so much of what I’ve tried tends to have a certain, now popular sound and…character.  Yes, neck profiles, finishes, pup configurations and bout sizes range.  So much of this is personal taste, a given.  But to me, so much of what I try seems…the same, or close to the same.  Like if you erased the name or logo on the headstock, you might not even know who built it.  So many have that aggressive, strident voice acoustically, string choice aside.  To my ears and in order to chase the sound in my head and heart, they are far too…loud, trebly, forward sounding and at times, unwieldy as a result of the sheer size of them.  So many guitars and perhaps players seem to love this approach to building and play the bop thing in that bag…with that sound.  And that is cool.  And those players are great.  And I adore that music, let’s be clear…I play out of that bag, too.  But sameness..I dislike sameness.  Who needs another ‘google’?

So I’d go back to the L5CT a lot; it can sound mellow and dark when plugged in (some pickups from Ron Ellis help!) and my choice of amplifiers (thanks to Henriksen) helps as well.  But there’s still that sense of sameness with the Gibby, albeit I get closer to what I want to hear and feel.   Still, I seem always to look for THAT instrument that is my perfect partner for so much music.  And a last thing…archtops, in my (not so humble) opinion, should not be considered only ‘jazz’ guitars.  A fine archtop, with or without pickup, should be able to play anything and just be…a great guitar.

About 8 years ago, I happened across a young builder named Danny Koentopp, thanks to social media.  The guy intrigued me.  He was in his mid/late 20’s, working out of a violin restoration shop in Chicago, just getting into the luthier world.  He was already building, but I sensed that he was…searching.  So we began a dialogue.  He struck me as a sincere soul, a big-hearted fellow with a great passion for life, for music, friends and family…just an all ‘round good guy.  As we grew more familiar with each other’s backgrounds, humor, likes and dislikes, a trust and a friendship was forged.  We’d chat often and not usually about guitars!  Our fathers for example, who we both miss so much, and their impact on our lives… we’d chat about travel, food, fine ale.  We just became friends.  

On a few visits to NAMM in Anaheim, I became familiar with Danny’s guitars.  His magnificent Amati model, his Blue Line, his Chicagoan as well.  I wanted to be in this guys corner.  I wanted to help get the word out on him and I knew that he was developing his own approach to building; he was experimenting with so much and was a lightning rod for input and information.  What he was already building was pretty exceptional.  Easy to play instruments with great sound, fine craftsmanship, gorgeous finishes…but they weren’t what I was after back then.  That did not stop me from telling folks about him and his instruments!  I was not thinking of buying or ordering, but I was digging his guitars and his personality.  Friends would ask me if I’d played anything great lately; Danny’s name always came up.  In the space of a few years, I steered a number of players to Danny that bought his guitars – and they were always happy with the results, the process and the new-found friendship.  To do this for me was easy; I was introducing friends to friends.  My mom always said: “..show me your friends and I’ll tell you what you are…”.  I had zero reluctance connecting Danny with my network of friends and musicians.

Our friendship and trust grew.  We would speak endlessly (apologies to Danny’s wife, Anjuli!) about guitars, about the connection with the player, about the details of construction, dimensions, how the ‘system’ of a guitar worked…and all the time the conversation seemed to embrace philosophy…life, art, creativity and integrity…a sense of being responsible to the player and one’s self…and to the world.  And what we both knew instinctively was that we were BOTH learning from this friendship, these conversations.  My understanding of the luthier’s craft and art was deepening and I like to think that Danny was also evolving.

It became apparent when, about four years ago, Danny called to tell me he was considering building me a guitar.  I told him that I wasn’t in a position to order one from him…and he said that we’d figure that out down the road and that the process to build THAT guitar for me would be such a challenge and so much fun that he loved the idea.  Thus began a four-year collaboration that resulted in the creation of a guitar that is THAT guitar.  

We discussed everything that I was after…dimensions, what woods to use and why, color and how to apply it, neck profile, pickups and mounting, feel, soul, action, neck set, bridge and fingerboard materials.  Frankly, we discussed and worked out every element of this instrument together, always with clear, shared goals in sound and aesthetic.  Scale, materials, weight, thicknesses…the list is so long because there is not one single element of the instrument, down to the design of the volume and tone knobs that we did not discuss, debate, differ on, agree to and pursue.  EVERY SINGLE THING.  We even aimed the guitar at the strings I would inevitably use.  This depth of collaboration was something I’d not understood possible with a builder.

So what exactly did I want?

I wanted an agile, fast playing, dynamic instrument that would not be strident and aggressive but would also not lack ‘high-end’, that would be able to play anything that I put into it.  A visually stunning instrument that would not be…too shiny.  That would convey: depth of character…vibe…hidden power…magic…inspiration.  And I was praying that Danny’s build would just be ‘in the ballpark’ and that I would be able to bring the instrument closer to ’me’ through fine adjustment and playing.  I had no expectation that I’d find the Grail here…or Excaliber, if you will.  But I did not want a ‘broad-sword’, I wanted a…sabre.  And I was just hoping for something that was ‘close’.