Put up here is the supreme, and thus rarest archtop of D’angelico NY-DC Limited Edition, made by Vestax Japan. As the legend says about the luthier Hidesao Shiino, this museum quality guitar gives me a surreal experience - it plays so comfortable, the minute I play a single note I feel the difference, maybe because of the top quality timers and jumbo frets? Or a larger-than-normal headstock resisting the neck curvature? Surely this guitar has become one of the most amazing Japan hollow body guitars I’ve ever played, along with Greco SA-1200, Ibanez AS-200 Artist, GB-100 (I also thought about comparing with Archtop Tribute and Fujigen/FGN but their simpler ornaments can’t compete with this magnificent vintage.)

Self-explanatorily, limited edition DC(Double Cutaway) guitars have been hand-crafted in very small numbers, also these days you can’t buy a brand new Vestax-made guitars as the production moved to Korean, obviously with the quality compromised

Speaking of the maintenance, I would mark A / A- without hesitation for over 2 decades’ seemingly extreme care and love cherished on this guitar. A doubtful watcher will need to magnify the photos below until finding an agreeable scratch (one on the pickguard as far as I can identify), or minimum oxidation of pickup covers.

With all these said, I suddenly become curious, if H.Shiino san is still alive, where is he and what sort of guitar is he crafting now…