Up for sale, a 1990's Buscarino S-Style HH electric guitar in excellent, 100% original condition and in perfect working order. John Buscarino has distinguished himself for decades as one of the most in-demand high-end archtop luthiers on the planet, benefitting from the tutelage of both classical guitar builder Augie LoPrinzi and archop luminary Bob Benedetto, yet he originally got his start building a select few custom solidbody electric guitars. Crafted in the Super Strat paradigm in the early '90s, this Buscarino features a solid alder body finished in gloss Cherry Sunburst, paired with a one-piece maple neck and slab 22 fret rosewood fretboard.

The guitar has a lively natural acoustic tone and a clear, balanced sound, loaded with the original pair of Dimarzio humbuckers. The neck position features a DP151 PAF Pro humbucker, with an open response and defined presence. Low notes have both snap and chunk, with a midrange spike that gives the pickup a subtle “aw” vowel sound, like a wah-wah pedal stopped in the middle. In the bridge position, the DP101 Dual Sound has a perfect blend of power and tone, engineered for high gain with a range of roaring tonalities and ample output, sweet midrange push, and a lightly compressed response perfect for chunky rhythm playing and fat lead work. A five-way super switch offers split coil operation in certain settings for a particularly broad tonal palette. Weighing 8lbs 4oz, this Buscarino has been professionally setup here at Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar with 10-46 strings, accurate intonation, and fast action.  

The maple neck has a slender, fast-feeling D shaped profile with prominent shoulder and lightly rolled fretboard edges, measuring .800” deep at the 1st fret and .860” at the 12th. The 22 fret thick slab rosewood fretboard features dot inlay and stock slender fretwire. The frets have their full height with well-rounded crowns, showing faint wear exclusively beneath the plain strings on the crowns of fret 1-3 and virtually no wear further up the fretboard. The guitar plays well in all registers up the straight neck with an ideally adjusted and responsive truss rod. The scale length is a full 25 1/2“, and the graphite nut measures 1 11/16“ in width. The headstock retains the original Sperzel locking tuning machines which ensure ideal stability even with heavy use of the Wilkinson vibrato.
 
On the body, the electronics function as intended, with a Master Tone knob, Master Volume, and five-way super switch governing the pair of humbuckers. The selector functions as follows:

Position 1: Neck Humbucker
Position 2: Neck and Bridge Single Coil (outer coil)
Position 3: Neck and Bridge Single Coil (inner coil)
Position 4: Bridge Single Coil
Position 5: Bridge Humbucker

The cream plastic parts have lightly aged, and there's a hint of patina on the tops of the domed knurled chrome-plated knobs and jack cup. Cosmetic wear on the gloss Cherry Sunburst finish is limited to light marks and chips mostly relegated to the body parameter, with sparse lines of finish checking extending from the neck pocket and on the sides. The neck profile sports a clean satin finish with just a few light marks that are not distracting to the palm while fretting.

A padded gigbag is included.