It Started With a Passion
Scott Chinery was a major figure in the vintage guitar world, a collector known to have sought out only the finest quality guitars. At the time of his death in 2000, he owned over a thousand of the world’s most important guitars. Chinery’s collection documented the evolution of the modern guitar and was the subject of the classic guitar reference book: The Chinery Collection, 150 Years of American Guitars. When a collector of such high caliber is able to acquire so many rare and exotic instrument, the hunger for something unique is the ultimate goal.
It Started With a Passion
Scott Chinery was a major figure in the vintage guitar world, a collector known to have sought out only the finest quality guitars. At the time of his death, in 2000, he owned over a thousand of the world’s most important guitars. Chinery’s collection documented the evolution of the modern guitar and was the subject of the classic guitar reference book: The Chinery Collection, 150 Years of American Guitars. When a collector of such high caliber is able to acquire so many rare and exotic instrument, the hunger for something unique is the ultimate goal.
Scott Chinery
“I saw the archtop guitar hitting a peak in terms of quality and diversity. The instruments that were being made at that point, in my view, surpassed those at any other time in history. I had often thought that it would be neat to get all the great portrait painters together to interpret the same subject and then see the differences among them. So that’s why I set out to do The Blue Guitars. To get all the greatest builders together and have them interpret the same guitar, an 18-inch archtop, in the same color blue that Jimmy had used. All of these great luthiers saw this as a friendly competition, and as a result they went beyond anything they’d ever done. We ended up with a collection of the greatest archtop guitars ever made.
-Scott Chinery
A Blue Centura 18 inch Archtop
After Jimmy D’Aquisto’s death in 1995, Chinery asked twenty-one of the world’s premier luthiers to build a guitar in tribute to D’Aquisto. The builders were encouraged to follow their own muse, however, there were two rules; the guitar had to be an 18 inch archtop and it had to be the exact same shade of blue as D’Aquisto’s Blue Centura Deluxe. The Blue Collection is the culmination of their work, featuring twenty-two of the finest archtop guitars ever created. This collection would be impossible to replicate. Sadly, several of the builders have passed on, making this collection an irreplaceable piece of history.
A Blue Centura 18 inch Archtop
Scott Chinery was a major figure in the vintage guitar world, a collector known to have sought out only the finest quality guitars. At the time of his death, in 2000, he owned over a thousand of the world’s most important guitars. Chinery’s collection documented the evolution of the modern guitar and was the subject of the classic guitar reference book: The Chinery Collection, 150 Years of American Guitars. When a collector of such high caliber is able to acquire so many rare and exotic instrument, the hunger for something unique is the ultimate goal.
After D’Aquisto’s death in 1995, Chinery asked twenty-two of the world’s premier luthiers to build a guitar in tribute to D’Aquisto. The builders were encouraged to follow their own muse, however, there were two rules; The guitar had to be an 18 inch archtop and it had to be the exact same shade of blue as D’Aquisto’s Blue Centura Deluxe. The Blue Collection is the culmination of their work, featuring twenty-two of the finest Archtop Guitars ever created. This collection would be impossible to replicate. Sadly, several of the builders have passed on, making this collection an irreplaceable piece of history.
The Blue Guitar Collection
The Blue Guitar Collection was displayed at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History from November 11th 1997 through October 1998. It is also worth noting that the Blue D’Aquisto Centura Deluxe, the Benedetto La Cremona Azzurra and the Monteleone Rocket Convertible were featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the museum’s “Guitar Heroes” exhibit in 2011. After Scott Chinery’s passing in 2000, the guitars have remained with the Chinery family and in 2021 were passed along to The Archtop Foundation. The Foundation’s goal is to share the collection with everyone – it is too good to keep hidden. We look to: 1) exhibit the guitars at shows, museums, and schools; 2) build a virtual museum here so that you can experience the collection wherever you are, with information on every guitar and luthier involved, including highest quality video recordings; 3) offer access to the collection to luthiers and scientific researchers studying how to understand and improve the art of luthiery; and 4) make these available to professional musicians looking to record on–or just experience– these wonderful instruments.