D'Angelico Teams Up with Neo-Soul Guitar Standout Melanie Faye for New Signature Deluxe DC Guitar

Melanie Faye plays her new signature D'Angelico Deluxe DC guitar
(Image credit: D'Angelico Guitars)

D'Angelico has joined forces with up-and-coming neo-soul guitarist Melanie Faye to create a new signature Deluxe DC electric guitar.

Given that it's a D'Angelico, the Deluxe Melanie Faye DC certainly has plenty of retro style, but it blends that with plenty of modern functionality.

You can see Faye take the guitar for a spin below.

For starters, the guitar features a semi-hollow laminated maple body with five-ply binding and a C-shaped neck sporting a 24.75", 16" radius rosewood fretboard adorned with 22 frets and mother of pearl block inlays.

Sounds on the instrument come by way of a pair of Kent Armstrong 57 Icon humbuckers (one uncovered, the other boasting a gold cover), controlled by two volume knobs and two tone knobs outfitted with push/pull coil-splitting capabilities, plus a three-way toggle pickup switch.

A gold Tune-O-Matic bridge with a stopbar tailpiece, Grover Super Rotomatic non-locking tuners, and a bone nut highlight the rest of the spec sheet, with Faye's signature on the truss rod cover making for a nice personal touch.

“This is pretty crazy,” Faye said of the guitar. “Six years ago, I got my first D’Angelico, and it was an Excel DC in a Surf Green finish, and what I really liked about it was the sustain and the tone when I played with overdrive. 

“I used the Excel DC on my Jimi Hendrix and Mariah Carey tribute video at Summit, and I chose that guitar because it looks really good onstage, that Surf Green and the gold [hardware]. But also I just love the big, clean tone of a semi-hollow with boutique pickups. Yeah, I fell in love with the tone that day.”

The D'Angelico Deluxe Melanie Faye DC is available now – in an ultra-limited run of just 50 Metallic Surf Green-finished instruments, each of which comes with a signed certificate of authenticity – for $1,999.

For more info on the model, visit dangelicoguitars.com.

Jackson Maxwell
Associate Editor, GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.