A separate chapter deserves the story of my passion, the first to emerge, for the making of archtop instruments intended for a more typical use in a jazz context. The first instrument I made at the beginning of my career, once I had mastered the traditional construction techniques, was in fact an instrument of this type. The impulse and the desire to start from that point in my career as a luthier arose, as often happens, from the wish to experiment with new paths in contexts and areas where the standards seem to have already been defined and the paths already marked out. The quarter-sawn resonance spruce for the soundboard, as well as the backs and sides in a single essence, recurring if not mandatory characteristics among the almost universally recognised manufacturing choices, have finally prompted me to try to experiment, in the wake of the teachings of the master luthiers and with absolute respect for established manufacturing techniques, with new solutions in terms of the choice and matching of essences that are not always usual or common. From this flattery, which I decided to accept, I decided to create archtop instruments in line with the principles of the luthier’s technique proposed by Master Robert Benedetto, with proposals for the matching of woods that are not always ordinary. I propose here some images of my instruments, whose detailed descriptions are included in the “Instruments” pages of this website. Each instrument presented on these pages is built in a unique piece strictly by hand from solid wood boards. Emanuele D’Alò, the maker.