I have been writing about Benedetto for a long time.

More than half a century has passed since Robert “Bob” Benedetto began making guitars in the late 1960s.

Archtop Archive has already examined the model line of the 1990s, the arrival of the Manhattan, the Renaissance Series, and the Fender / Guild years after 1999.

Without quite realizing it, much of the later history has now been filled in.

One major period, however, remained largely unexplored.

The years before the Manhattan.

That is, from the late 1960s, when Bob Benedetto began building guitars, through 1989, when the Manhattan appeared.

This period has not gone entirely unmentioned. Researching the later models inevitably leads back to records from the 1970s and 1980s.

But I had never followed the story from the beginning, in chronological order.

For this article, I arranged Benedetto’s Production Log and contemporary price lists chronologically and retraced the years from 1968 to 1989.

Seen in that sequence, familiar model names began to look somewhat different.

The clearest example is Cremona.

Anyone familiar with the later Cremona is likely to think of it as a special model at the very top of the Benedetto line.

Yet the name appears surprisingly early in the records.

Nor can we assume that it carried exactly the same meaning throughout its history.

Cremona, Supreme, Limelite, and Fratello.

When did these names—which would later help define Benedetto—first appear, and how did their meanings develop?

With those questions in mind, let us look at Benedetto before the Manhattan.

1968: The First Guitar

The first guitar recorded in the Production Log is #0168, built in 1968.

The model field reads Custom.

The body size is 17 inches.

The second guitar, #0270 from 1970, is listed as Pregio. Its body size is recorded as 19 inches.

These first two instruments alone reveal no clear model system resembling the later Benedetto line.

Custom and Pregio.

Their body sizes differ—17 and 19 inches—and total production was still extremely small.

Then, on the very next guitar, a name that survives to this day suddenly appears.

1972.

Serial number #0372.

CREMONA

The model field reads Cremona.

The body size is 17 inches.

The name Cremona was not introduced only after Benedetto’s production increased and a formal model line took shape.

In the Production Log, it appears on only the third guitar.^[1]

And this was not an isolated occurrence.

The next guitar, #0473 from 1973, is also a Cremona.

The name continues to recur throughout the early Production Log on #0575, #0676, #0777, #0877, #0977, and #1177.

Among the first 23 guitars, at least 13 are recorded as Cremonas.

Viewed together, the Cremona seems less like one model among many in early Benedetto production and more like the name at its center.

There is another interesting fact here.

Every early Cremona whose dimensions can be confirmed in the records has a 17-inch body.

#0372 is 17 inches, as is #0473. The Cremonas built in 1976, 1977, and 1978 continue at 17 inches.

It would be tempting, then, to say that Cremona was simply the name of the 17-inch model from the outset.

That conclusion seems natural.

The evidence, however, is not quite so simple.

1975: A Price List Without Model Names

A Benedetto Guitars price list dated December 1975 presents three models.^[2]

The name Cremona is absent.

The Production Log had already used Cremona repeatedly for 17-inch guitars for three years.

Yet in the customer-facing price list, the designation is 17 INCH MODEL, not CREMONA MODEL.

That discrepancy deserves attention.

This single document is not enough to conclude that Cremona was not an official model name at the time.

The workshop may have used the name Cremona while sales materials listed only body size. Alternatively, the price list may have shown basic sizes while the Cremona name was used when an order was actually placed.

We do not know.

Judging strictly from the surviving document, the range Benedetto presented to customers in 1975 was organized not by later model names such as Cremona, Supreme, and Limelite, but by body size: 17, 18, and 19 inches.

The details are equally revealing.

The basic specifications shared by all three are listed under “STANDARD FEATURES ON ALL MODELS.”

They include a carved spruce top, curly maple back and sides, an ebony fingerboard, Grover tuners, and gold-plated hardware.

Customers could then specify neck dimensions, scale length, frets, binding, and other details; pickups, inlays, a natural finish, and similar features were available at extra cost.

That seems closer to the workshop’s practice than the later idea of distinct guitars organized by model name and character.

Only a few years after this price list, however, things changed.

Distinct names began to appear in a Benedetto range that had previously been presented by size alone.

The Arrival of the Supreme

In 1978, a new name appears in the Production Log.

Serial number #1878.

Supreme.

Its body measures 18 inches, and the completion date is recorded as July 30.^[1]

The available evidence does not show whether the Supreme itself began with this guitar or whether the name had already been used for earlier 18-inch instruments.

At minimum, #1878 is the first instrument identified as a Supreme in the Production Log.

It is surrounded in the log by Cremonas.

In other words, the production records from the summer of 1978 clearly establish this pairing:

Cremona 17″ ／ Supreme 18″

A price list effective October 1 of that year shows another change not present in 1975.^[3]

In 1975, “17 INCH MODEL,” “18 INCH MODEL,” and “19 INCH MODEL” appeared in the list as though the sizes themselves were the model names.

By 1978, the proper names Cremona and Supreme appear in the sales literature.

This was a significant change.

Taken together, the surviving documents suggest that between 1975 and 1978, the Benedetto range evolved from a simple division by body size into a system of named models.

1980: Three Models Come Together

February 1980.

#4580 in the Production Log introduces the name Limelite.

The body size is 16 inches.

At this point, three models come together in the clear arrangement that would later become familiar.

The Price List dated July 25, 1980 states the standard body size and price of each model.^[4]

One detail is especially important: the Cremona and Limelite carry the same price.

The 17-inch Cremona is $3,000.

The 16-inch Limelite is also $3,000.

Body size was therefore an important distinction between models, but size itself did not determine a model’s rank.

The Fratello: Another 17-Inch Model

The Limelite was not the only new model to appear in 1980.

The preceding entry, #4480, is recorded as Fratello.

It dates from January 1980 and has a 17-inch body.

Thus, although a 17-inch Cremona already existed, a second 17-inch model—the Fratello—was added.

This makes the relationship between model name and body size clearer still.

A model name was not merely a size designation.

The specifications listed in the Fratello sales literature were by no means modest.

They included a carved top and back, an ebony fingerboard, a three-piece curly maple neck, gold tuners, and a floating pickup.

Even so, its price was clearly lower than that of the Cremona or Limelite.^[5]

Despite sharing the same 17-inch size, the Cremona and Fratello were intended to serve different roles.

1982: A Second Direction

What we have seen so far is a Benedetto range that began with body size as its organizing principle and gradually developed into a named system of Cremona, Supreme, Limelite, and Fratello.

Later official Benedetto sources, however, describe a different kind of change in 1982—one separate from the organization of model names.

“in 1982 he led the movement to strip away superfluous bindings and inlays from the archtop guitar.”

The official 2007 catalog states that in 1982 Bob Benedetto led a movement to remove superfluous binding and inlay from the archtop guitar.^[8]

The current official biography in the Benedetto Guitars Archives goes further. It says that in 1982 a direction emerged that stripped away unnecessary ornamentation and focused attention on the archtop’s acoustic voice. It links this “less is more” philosophy to the later La Venezia, La Cremona Azzurra, and Renaissance Series.^[9]

Chuck Wayne is central to this part of the story.

The Benedetto Guitars Archives preserves a photograph captioned “Chuck Wayne with custom 1982 Benedetto”.^[10]

In 2016, Benedetto Guitars president Howard Paul recalled that Bob refined his instruments while listening to players including Chuck Wayne, Johnny Smith, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Kenny Burrell. Paul said that Wayne wanted “a guitar like a violin”. He described the resulting direction as lighter, less ornamented, and more functional for the player, without binding or purfling.^[11]

This 2016 account does not explicitly say that the design philosophy began in 1982. The date comes from the official catalog and biography; Wayne’s request and the design direction were explained later by Howard Paul. The two pieces of evidence should be read separately.

Nor were all Benedetto guitars suddenly simplified in 1982. Cremona #7582, built that year, has seven-ply body binding, five-ply neck and headstock binding, triple-bound f-holes, and pearl ornamentation throughout.^[12]

This direction did not immediately replace the model system of the 1980s. It would take clearer form in 1990s work such as the La Venezia and Renaissance Series.

The Late 1980s: The Shape of the Manhattan Emerges

Following the Production Log through the 1980s also shows that the sizes listed in the 1980 price list were not absolute specifications.

#13186 from 1986 is a 16 5/8-inch Cremona.

#16188 from 1988 is recorded as a 16-inch Cremona.

Fratellos also exist with 16 5/8-inch and 16-inch bodies.

The dimensions in the price list are best understood as standard specifications rather than inviolable rules.

By the late 1980s, the Fratello becomes increasingly prominent in the Production Log.

Surviving instruments from around 1988 often have body outlines that already anticipate the later Manhattan.

At the same time, details such as pickguard shape, treatment of the fingerboard end, and headstock design had not yet become fully consistent.

The design was approaching its mature form, but experimentation continued.

It may be more accurate to see it as the consolidation of ideas developed through the late 1980s into a single model.

And Then, 1989

#16689 in the Production Log.

Manhattan.

17 inches.

January 1989.

What followed is covered in detail in “How the Manhattan Changed Benedetto.”

But after following the Production Log in sequence from 1968, the arrival of the Manhattan looks somewhat different.

The Manhattan was not a new 17-inch model suddenly added to an empty space.

The Cremona and Fratello already occupied that territory.

Throughout the 1980s, Benedetto had developed a model system that could not be reduced to body size alone.

The Manhattan entered that existing system.

In subsequent sales literature, the Fratello and Manhattan appear at the same price, while the Cremona is described as:

“available as special order only”^[6]

This does not mean that the Cremona disappeared.

Rather, its position changed.

As the Manhattan and Fratello took the center of the regular line, the Cremona moved into a more exceptional role.

In July 1991, the Cremona was priced at $12,500.

Contemporary materials present it as a model defined by European cello woods, elaborate ornamentation, and other special specifications.^[7]

By this point, describing the Cremona simply as “the 17-inch model” has little meaning.

Seventeen inches had indeed been the Cremona’s standard size for many years.

What defines the later Cremona, however, is not its body size but its identity as a special model at the top of the Benedetto line.

Before the Manhattan

From #0168 in 1968 to #16689 in 1989.

Placing 21 years of Production Log entries alongside contemporary price materials makes it clear that Benedetto’s model system did not begin in a finished form.

None of these developments was rigid or absolute.

In actual production, instruments departed from standard dimensions, the Fratello grew in prominence, and by the end of the 1980s body forms anticipating the later Manhattan had begun to appear.

At the same time, details such as the pickguard, fingerboard end, and headstock still show traces of experimentation.

In 1982, another direction also emerged—one that cannot be understood through changes in model names and body sizes alone.

Tracing Benedetto before the Manhattan reveals at least two currents running through these 21 years.

One is the evolving organization of the Cremona, Supreme, Limelite, and Fratello and the path that led from them to the Manhattan.

The other favors restrained ornamentation, lightness, and acoustic voice—a current that would later lead to the La Venezia and Renaissance Series.

Neither replaced the other. Both developed in parallel within Benedetto.

The Manhattan of 1989 stands at the end of the first process: the gradual organization of the model line.
The second direction, made explicit in 1982, continues into the 1990s.

References

1. Robert Benedetto, Production Log. Consulted for serial numbers, model names, body sizes, customers, and completion dates from 1968 onward.
2. Benedetto Guitars, Price List as of December 1975. Consulted for prices, standard specifications, and Custom Options for the 17-, 18-, and 19-Inch Models.
3. Benedetto Guitars, Price List effective October 1, 1978. Consulted for prices of the Cremona, 7-String, and Supreme.
4. Benedetto Guitars, Price List effective July 25, 1980. Consulted for standard body sizes and prices of the Supreme, Cremona, Limelite, and 7-String.
5. Benedetto Guitars, Fratello dealer sales sheet. Consulted for the Fratello’s standard specifications, sales positioning, and price.
6. Benedetto Guitars, Fratello / Manhattan brochure and price list, circa late 1980s–1990. Consulted for Fratello and Manhattan prices and the description of the Cremona as “available as special order only.”
7. Benedetto Guitars, Cremona price list, July 1991. Consulted for the Cremona’s price and standard specifications.
8. Benedetto Guitars, 2007 Catalog. Consulted for the statement that in 1982 Benedetto led a movement to remove superfluous binding and inlay.
9. Benedetto Guitars Archives, Bob Benedetto Bio. Consulted for the account of the 1982 emphasis on acoustic voice, the “less is more” philosophy, and its relationship to later models.
10. Benedetto Guitars Archives, Benedetto Players. Consulted for the photograph captioned “Chuck Wayne with custom 1982 Benedetto.”
11. Mark Ari, “Makers & Shakers: Benedetto Guitars Is Building Some of the Most Coveted Archtops in the World”, Acoustic Guitar, October 7, 2016. Consulted for Howard Paul’s account of Chuck Wayne and the design philosophy.
12. 1982 Benedetto Cremona, archtop.com. Consulted for the binding and ornamentation specifications of #7582.

Note: Production years, model names, and body sizes are based on the Production Log and contemporary price materials. The discussion of changing model roles and the structure of the line represents the author’s interpretation after comparing multiple sources.

Revision History

• September 9, 2026 — Rechecked the image of Production Log entry #16689. The notation “1-89” confirms January 1989.