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Archtop

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We are proud to build a desirable exciting guitar like the Vienna Archtop. We are just as proud of the people who play them. The Vienna is built for the most passionate guitar lovers, people who do want to buy the best guitar they can get and to have the instrument built to their specifications.

We believe that design details should enhance the beauty and the basic shape of the guitar. You can see that all proportions are perfectly balanced; a dynamic powerful elegance. Yet this is done without any extrovert features that would distract the eye. The architectural purity of the design gives the guitar a clean shape that represents the essence of the sound.

The Vienna is truly a masterpiece of Scharpach Guitars.
The guitar is made by using the similar traditional approach of craftsmanship as has been done hundreds of years by the fine art of violin or cello making. More in particular I am using similar acoustical design principles and starting points as Stradivarius has done for his topplate carving but adapting those to guitar acoustics. Stradivarius had a quite different approach then those of other great makers of that time.

An interesting other issue is the open headstock, which is not common to Archtops, featuring countersink machines. I wanted to have the string rollers run horizontal for perfect tuning and harmonic balance of design. This idea looks logic but is far from simple to construct. It uses a new design for machines and therefore needing some new constructions presenting an aesthetic way for the fittings of the machines to the headstock. But isn't the result truly exceptional and original? And believe me these extraordinary machines tune like no others.

The string rollers are of titanium as parts of the knobs are.

The Bleu Vienna

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My first Archtop that became widely known to a bigger audience was in the days, when I was invited by Scott Chinery to participate as a guitarmaker for his Blue Guitar Collection.

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I was really honoured to be invited as the only maker from Europe, joining the most famous American Archtop makers like Mr. Mark Campellone, Mr. Bill Comins, Mr. Mark Lacey and many more...

Scott Chinery placed a historical order similar like the Royal Families did in the past and made an unforgettable statement by his tribute to the guitar: commissioning a very selective group of guitarmakers to honour D'Aquisto by making a blue Archtop. This unique collection should never be separated as it is a statement, showing the Art of Archtop-making at the end of the last century.

The Vienna Sunset

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I started to use topplates that I had bought from the widow of A. Lang. This old stock I must have bought more then 15 years ago. Lang was a well-known German guitarmaker living in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany and died in 1975.

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Although some of the woods may have minor visual failures, it is acoustically far-out superior.
The roughly pre-cut tops do sound like a bell. I estimate that they have been stored to dry in the workshop of Lang for more the 40 years. The wood itself would therefore surely be more then 250 years old. In the time Lang bought his wood, the supply of high quality was no problem.

For the first time I am using a bicolour partial gold-plated titanium tailpiece that is originally designed by me and only available on Scharpach Archtops. I found out that a massive metal tailpiece does a much better acoustic job then an ebony tailpiece.
Even the wheel and thread in the adjustable bridge are made of titanium for reducing weight and a faster response time of the bridge.

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The guitar has a powerful and well-balanced acoustic sound and is very easy to play. It produces just enough bass and strong fat punchy trebles, still with rich harmonics. The guitar does not have this midrange sound that sometimes is typical for Archtops, nevertheless is still cuts through.

The colour of this Archtop, I call Vienna Sunset, has not the reds as you get from a Sunburst.
To me this traditional colour is very appealing, showing many fine graduations of coloured shades.