Jesselli Guitars "Sound Lenz" Description:
After knowing and spending much of my youth hanging out and learning about guitars, their history and how they are built in Joe Jesselli’s Long Island NY workshop; it’s a pleasure to present you with this very special piece. A true holy grail guitar. This 2020 Jesselli Guitars “Sound Lenz” (fully hand-carved & fully hollow Archtop) comes strait from the source. Master Luthier Joseph Jesselli. Described as the “Stradivari of Huntington" (Huntington NY) by The New York Times, Joseph Jesselli is a Luthier many other Luthiers revere and draw inspiration from. Jesselli guitars (especially brand new ones) are not only sought after by both high-end guitar collectors but they are also owned by some of the worlds most recognized musicians, such as Keith Richards who owns three Jesselli models and has recorded with and praised their quality many times over, in multiple interviews.
This guitar has been over 4 years in the making, due to Jesselli's most stringent quality standards and for the fact that everything besides the tuners and some electronics (pots, etc) have been carefully and fully hand-crafted by Joe Jesselli. Even the tuning pegs and toggle-switch tips are all made-in-house, using custom jigs that Joe has built specifically for his own forward thinking instrument designs.
These are extremely hard to find instruments, as Joe builds his guitars in very small groupings and maybe one or two every couple of years are completed. Most of them are pre-spoken for, before they can go up for sale.
Jesselli Guitars are like no other on this planet, they are as rare as they come in the Luthier-built guitar world; especially a build as intricate and detailed such as this "Sound Lenz", which utilizes seven cutouts below the neck pickup, instead of a large sound hole or two F-Holes. This along with a specific way that Jesselli carves the tap-tuned top's
thickness; makes the guitar project it's tone forward while preventing feedback. Even with an overdriven tube amplifier.
Joe Jesselli was one of the very few in-studio apprentices to famed NY Archtop Luthier Jimmy D'Aquisto, whom he worked under from 1973 to around 1980. Jesselli's guitars are true artisan/master craftsmen built works of art, heavily influenced by Art Deco and Art Nouveau styling. No other instrument we've come by plays or sounds quite like a Jesselli. Their qualities seem to blur the lines between Archtops and Solid Body Electrics, while having a bell-like, Flat-Top acoustic guitar crispness & response to their tone. After years of owning and playing many high-end Luthier-built and coveted vintage guitars, we can firmly say that this Jesselli has more than just "something special" going for it. It vibrates sensationally in your hands and against your waist, while it rings out in a breath-like/pulsating way, as if it were alive. It's full of haunting harmonics and ghostly artifacts with a hugely complex, Piano meets Archtop, meets Fullerton-Solid Body style of voice. You can go from great Jazz tones to twangy Tele-esque bridge pickup clarity. Just as it has a voice is all its own, the same goes for the feel and play-ability, which is another completely unique experience unto itself.
All Jesselli Guitars utilize a Zero-Fret aka a Fret-Nut, with an angled Mammoth Ivory Nut for low action and a slinkier feel than most Archtop guitars, especially in first position. The strings slide through the grooves of the nut with ease. This system makes it so that the guitars action feels uniform all the way up the neck. The frets are bronze, custom made specifically for Jesselli Guitars by Cook-Horton. Jesselli frets his guitars in a unique fashion. Their edges are rounded, and cut the full width of the fret board, so that you do not loose any space and can play on the entire width of the board without ever getting to close to the edge. Most guitars frets are ground down at the ends to not feel sharp, but you end up loosing sometimes an entire 16th of an inch or so on each side. With Jesselli's system you get the experience of playing the entire width of the fingerboard. In so many ways these instruments are in a class all their own. Read more about Joe Jesselli & his work on our website southshoreguitarboutique.com under “Luthier Highlights”
More on the details of this particular instrument. This 2020 Jesselli Guitars "Sound Lenz" features a highly figured Rock Maple body and neck of the highest quality. Joe's wood stash is legendary, most of; if not all of the wood he uses on his guitars are pieces sourced by him in the late 60's up until the early 80's. The wood is much older than that though, usually well over 90 years old, while some pieces are much older and date back to the days of his studies with Jimmy D'Aquisto.
The neck is carved out of 1-piece 1/4" sawn rock maple, the top and sides of the guitar are figured rock maple. The back is fiddle-back maple. The bridge, tailpiece, fretboard, and headpiece face plate are all made of ebony. The tailpiece is accented with Santo Domingo mahogany. The bridge saddles are ivory for the most natural tone possible. They are meticulously compensated and slotted to provide the perfect/necessary break angle.
The gorgeous knobs are of course custom made by Jesselli and are built from buffalo horn. The pickup rings are truly something to behold. They also feature matching buffalo horn and are meticulously built out of brass which Jesselli later plates silver, for a unique and classy antiqued ascetic. The darker/inner parts of the rings are the buffalo horn.
As a matter of fact, all visible pieces of metal on this guitar are silver-plated to match. Every piece is plated in Joe's shop to provide a beautiful and durable finish, that is pleasing to the eye. You will never find stock plating on a Jesselli Guitar. Especially not on a recent example, such as this. Everything is done to the extremely high standards, that makes a Jesselli Guitar what it is. A masterpiece, with unsurpassed looks, feel, playability and tone. Each of these things are equally as important to Joe when building an instrument.
This Sound Lenz features a set of custom hand-wound, High-Fidelity Mini Humbucker pickups built by Vintage Vibe Guitars, a true "custom-shop" pickup winder, who many Luthiers trust their tone to. They are wrapped in English "Kip" leather, that is hand stained. The beautiful light-brown hue comes from the way the leather oxidizes naturally after being stained. This guitar also comes with a matching custom leather strap, made by Joe of the same material and color.
The neck inlay is pearl and matches the pearl engraved Art-Deco style Jesselli inlay at the headstock.
The frets are custom bronze made specifically for Jesselli Guitars by Cook-Horton.
The headpiece, neck, and body all feature black and white nitrocellulose binding.
The knobs are buffalo horn with faux tortoiseshell inserts, the switch tips are made from ancient mammoth ivory, as is the heal-plate w/ maple accents and the truss-rod cover with ebony accents. There is also a Jesselli custom-designed lever inside of the guitar, that you can use to dampen the tops vibrations, for a thicker beefier tone. It is accessible through the back plate. All screws on this guitar are Hex screws, which look much cleaner than a Phillips Head or Flathead screw. The guitar comes with two tools to adjust the pickup height & to take off the backplate.
This guitar features all sorts of unique/masterfully executed wood-carving. Just look at the impressive and graceful Art-Deco hand carved lines on the back of the guitar. They go all the way around the entire instrument, in a fluent and beautiful way. Like something you'd see in a museum. Which reminds us, Joe has been asked numerous times to have his work displayed at MOMA in NYC as well as many other Fine Art Museums, but due to the length of time it takes to build a Jesselli and the rarity of each coveted piece; he has not been able to provide them with multiple examples thus far.
Tonally the guitar is something of a hybrid. It can certainly do everything you'd expect from a traditional 16" fully carved Archtop, but has so much more to offer. Players of Jazz, Rock, Rockabilly, Blues, Avant-Jazz, Indie Rock, Country and everything in between; will find this instrument to be an inspiring and more than appropriate companion to whatever their playing style is. It's the sort of instrument that just pulls music out of you and inspires the player to step outside the box.
Electronics and Accessories:
The pickups are custom made Mini-Humbuckers by Pete Biltoff of Vintage Vibe Guitar Pickups.
The guitar features one volume knob and one tone control knob.
The pickup toggle is a six-way switch:
Positions 1 through 3 are traditional pickup selectors. The first position engages the neck pickup. Position two selects both the neck and bridge pickups, and the third position selects only the bridge pickup.
Positions 4 through 6 select the pickups in the same way, but engages a different tone circuit to provide a slightly warmer sound. The tone control has a unique sweep to it, which sounds almost like a slightly resonant filter. Even with the tone control all the way down, you still have a very usable sound. It never gets muddy or to dark.
The second toggle switch is a three-way, that allows the player to engage a transducer that resides inside of the bridge.
Position 1 is the magnetic pickups only, Position 2 features both the magnetic pickups and the transducer,
Position 3 is the transducer by itself; for the most true amplified acoustic voice possible.
Using a stereo instrument cable, you can send the magnetic pickups to one amp & the transducers in the bridge to another amp. With the 3 way switch for the transducers, you can mix both styles of pickups in a variety of ways.
Scale length: 25 1/2"
Nut width: 1 11/16th"
Lower bout: 16"
Neck profile: Custom Jesselli C Shape, similar to his mentor D'aquisto's C neck profiles.
Fingerboard Radius: Compound 8"-16"
Tuners: Gotoh w/ custom buttons made by Jesselli & plated silver to match the rest of the guitar. The gear housings have also been silver-plated.
This guitar comes in a high quality fitted BAM, Carbon Fiber Hard Shell Case (made in France) A $950 value. as well as adjustment tools and a leather strap, built by Joe for this Sound Lenz guitar.
Note that the tone control knob only affects the sound of the magnetic pickups. It does not alter the transducer signal.
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