Andy's Guitars '97 - Present

At this point in Andy's career, he abandoned radical effecting and unorthodox equipment for a more organic sound, while his playing became ever the more profound. He plays lots of his old, vintage instruments and has struck an interest in archtops. One thing is for certain - creating moving, pioneering music is still Andy's trademark.

1960 Gibson ES-335

Anyone who has been following Andy's recent jazz adventures will know that this is now his guitar of choice. He got it around the time "Ghost In The Machine" was to be recorded. The tone Andy gets out of this guitar is very human and amazingly alive. It is cherry red in color but in person looks almost like watermelon pink. He told Virtual Guitar Magazine's James Santiago in February 1999 that "I've been using the 335 for a while, partly because it's a very practical guitar to take on the road. I don't know how long I'll stick with it. The one I've got is a beautiful guitar. It's great to play. It suits me, and I don't have any feedback problems. I can get really bright sort of rock sounds out of it, or the more kind of warm sort of jazz guitar sounds. It sort of cuts it on a lot of levels. That's why I've enjoyed using it."

 To see more of Andy's Gibsons which he uses these days, click here

Benedetto Archtops

Robert Benedetto has emerged as one of the premier archtop makers of the world. He has been making archtops by hand for more than 30 years. His guitars are noted for their tonal balance, ease of playing and tasteful, elegant detailing.

You can see Andy use a Benedetto Archtop on his Hot Licks guitar video "Andy Summers - Guitar." The one he uses on this video was borrowed from Robert Benedetto's daughter, Gina. Afterwards, Andy was enamored with it and asked Robert to build him one. As any guitarmaker knows, it's not cheap, time-wise or money-wise! It takes several months for Robert to make one of his masterpieces, and standard cost for one of these beauties is around $30,000. But Robert's process, in which he builds each archtop one at a time and has a special number of steps to ensure immaculate results, justifies the cost.

The Benedetto Andy is playing on the left is a Cremona model. Andy's own Benedetto includes his name engraved in the tailpiece.

For more information on Robert Benedetto and his guitars, please visit www.benedetto-guitars.com

Greg Danielak - 2001