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You have often heard (read) bludave, wattage and myself speak very highly of our friend and amazing luthier Cris Mirabella of but his website is a bit oudated and doesn't show some of his AMAZING guitars. well, being that i am taking photos for a few upcomming full page magazine ads i am laying out for him i have 3 of the guitars he has built at home with me (how lucky am i hehehe). his craftsmanship and ideas are second to none! plus to top it all off he is an all around helpful and friendly guy who will work to make the customer happy no matter if he is building a custom jazz box, solid body electric, mandolin, acoustic guitar or doing custom finish work or inlays or if he is just setting up your guitar. he is one of the very very few people i trust working on my guitars and after you look at the pictures below of his 3 hand built jazz guitars you will know why.

first up is my personal favorite. The quot;Modern Jazzquot; (that's flame koa binding)
Next up is serial number 001.
then a customers guitar who requested a sharp cutaway and dual hums with a gibson like control layout...

every guitar is built 100% to the buyers specs. these are not cookie cutter guitars. if you want the body a bit thicker or thinner, no problem anything is possible. each neck is hand shaped to the players hand (no off the shelf 1 or 2 choices to pick from). any woods, any finish, any inlays you can think of! he mostly deals with jazz guitars but he will build WHATEVER you want! he has also built some amazing solid body electrics that i have had the pleasure to drool over and play.

they are some of the most amazing sounding, playing and feeling guitars i have ever laid my hands on. the build quality and details are beyond your average custom shop big name company for sure! although i am FAR from a Jazz player i know a good guitar when i play one and you don't get any better than these!!

these pics were just a quick shoot i did in a bit of a rush so you guys can see some of his guitars. after i am done with the real shoot i will post some better pics and perhaps the final full page ads when i am done designing them.

also in the future i will be able to post pics of a solid body electric Cris will be building me

if you have any questions i MAY be able to answer them however our forum brother bludave knows the Mirabella jazz guitars and the specs much better than i do.

enjoy the pics!

-Mike

Those look awsome, I like the ones without the huge holes but in them though One day I want a big hollowbody.

the 1st one is amazing looking

holy **** the first one is awesome. that is ****ing amazing mike. I love it

slade

yeah the 1st one, the modern jazz is ana AMAZING looking and playing guitar! it's my favorite of the group since i tend to like wild things. if i played jazz i'd play that!!!

-Mike

Nice! It looks like someone studied D'Aquisto.

Just beautiful! Wattage aways speaks highly of Chris's work, easy to see why. Sounds like a very kool and talented guy. Nice pics BTW.

gorgeous...simply gorgeous!

Damn, those are beautiful, especially the first one. I love the way he does his logo, very simplistic.

1 to seafoamer especially on the second.

They're amazing, wouldn't mind owning one. Wonder for how much they run. Imagine the first one with the gibson appointments and the sharp cu...

Mike those are some terrific pictures mind if I throw them up on Cris' site?

Cris' guitars are all very beautiful and the level of craftsmanship is exceptional. I've known Cris for a little more than 15 years or so now and I can tell you I have never met anyone who loves and appreciates what they do more than him, I am very jealous. I've also watched him grow from a very competent guitar tech to a world class craftsman. Cris is also one of the nicest most sincere people you will ever meet in your life.

The first guitar there is very, very special as it is a tribute to his mother Johanna who just recently passed away. It is really nice to see the repsonses to it so far. Cris will be really happy to hear that.

Seafoamer - Cris is one of the only guys to go to for D'Angelico and D'Aqusto repairs and restorations, he doesn't just study them, he pretty much knows them inside out and backwards having been around them since he was a kid. He can appreciate those guitars on a level most people can only dream about. You can see it when he speaks of them and when he is working on them, there is a level of love and commitment to those instruments that is extraordinary. Watching him work and build some of his own guitars is some very powerful stuff too, I think in the very near future his instruments will be considered and spoken of in the same way as both of those mens instruments are.

www.mirabellaguitars.com

Scott...feel free to use any of these on his site and there will be better ones on the way when i start shooting for the magazine ads. these were just some quick shots with my cheaper camera.

-Mike


Originally Posted by WattageSeafoamer - Cris is one of the only guys to go to for D'Angelico and D'Aqusto repairs and restorations, he doesn't just study them, he pretty much knows them inside out and backwards having been around them since he was a kid. He can appreciate those guitars on a level most people can only dream about. You can see it when he speaks of them and when he is working on them, there is a level of love and commitment to those instruments that is extraordinary. Watching him work and build some of his own guitars is some very powerful stuff too, I think in the very near future his instruments will be considered and spoken of in the same way as both of those mens instruments are.

yea, he's cool. I'm pretty sure he made a replacement pickgaurd for a D'Angelico I has back in the day.
I'd love to see his asthetic designs go beyond the D'Aquisto influence. Pick up a copy of quot;Just Jazz Guitarquot; magazine, amp; everyone amp; their brother is making boxes that look just like D'Aquisto's. Hell, I used to own a Manzer, who was D'Aquisto's aprentice for a time. She was one of the first to really cop the D'Aquisto look.
But then again, u can't hear asthetics.

how much do they generally run? 3 k? 4k?

Those are very beautiful guitars... man, I would definitely learn to play Jazz if I could play one of those I bet they sound awesome!

You'd have to contact Cris for prices but I imagine he has some models that start in that area and go up but again he'd be the person to speak to about pricing.Foamy do have any pics of the DA? If Cris did the guard he's likely to remember, maybe even have some pics of it laying around. I have seen pieces by a few of Jimmy's apprentices all very nice, I have only seen a Manzer acoustic never a jazzer. I just checked her site, beautiful guitars.


Originally Posted by WattageFoamy do have any pics of the DA? If Cris did the guard he's likely to remember, maybe even have some pics of it laying around. I have seen pieces by a few of Jimmy's apprentices all very nice, I have only seen a Manzer acoustic never a jazzer. I just checked her site, beautiful guitars.

The DA I had was not an original. I meant to say that in my other post but got ahead of myself. The first company to get the license to use the DA name was a company called quot;archtop enterprisesquot;. They were comprised of the 5 master builders from the early Gibson factory, that stayed in kallamazoo when Gibson moved, amp; formed Heritage. They were the original L5, super 400 luthiers. They made a small # of New Yorker amp; Excel replicas for around amp; $10,000. They were stunning guitars. If i remember, Cris made the pickgaurds for these. I had an extra one made, I think it might have been by Cris also. I wanted one to put a hole in, for the floating p-up pot.
This was sometime around 1993. Later on a different company purchsed the DA name amp; is making much lower quality replicas.
I have a pic somewhere of the one I had. It's the big 18 inch Blond New yorker. It was awesome! I've been meaning to find, scan amp; post a few pics of the cool archtops I owned in the past.
One of these days.

Cool I remember those guitars and I think he did make those guards.

The Mirabella Guitar shop is one of the most amazing shops on the Planet. As Mike and Scott already mentioned. There are few people in the World that have had an oppurtunity to work on D'Angelicos or D'Aquistos. Cris in my opinion is one of if not the most Knowledgable on these guitars. He has worked on and repaired just about every model those two builders have ever made. Last week I got a chance to play 2 D'Aquistos and a couple of vintage Strats (one from the 50's and one from the 60's). The week before that I held a '57 Gold top and '65 Strat. Where else on the planet can you get all these amazing guitars in one place. He also has created some amazin cinversions of '54 Les Pauls into '59 Les Pauls. His finish work is unbelievable. The finish on his guitars are like a mirror when complete. Oh yeah I forgot to mention...... He is building me a Flattop Acoustic also. Can't wait to get it. Oh yeah I also forgot....... He is one of if not my best friend!!!!

just messing with my new camera and photoshop...thought you guys may get a kick out of this...
-Mike