Made during the time Bob was contracted with Fender/Guild, this Benedetto Manhattan is a great example of the work Bob and the Fender Custom Shop crew were putting out in the early 2000s. Some of the guys responsible for building these guitars under Bob's supervision have gone on to become very well known luthiers.  Steven Stern, now head of the Gretsch Custom Shop may be the only luthier to have worked been instructed in archtop building under both Bob Benedetto and Jimmy D'Aquisto.  Yuriy Shishkov has continued with Fender Custom Shop as one of the most in demand Master Builders.  
 
The guitar has a great, full and balanced acoustic tone, as expected from a classic x-braced Benedetto 17-inch archtop.  The sound is warm with great presence and note separation.  The Benedetto B-6 floating pickup also delivers the great electric tone they are known for.  The playability is great with only light fret wear, mostly on the first 4 frets and barely noticeable on the rest.  The neck has a comfortable soft D-shape.  The bridge has plenty of room to adjust either up or down as the player prefers.
 
The finish shows some very minor dye bleed into the clear coat over the binding I have tried to show in photos.  There is also a small amount of fret "sprout" into the binding causing small binding cracks which can't be felt.  There is also some very minor cracking of the clear coat over the neck binding, as shown.  Otherwise, the finish shows only some very minor surface scratches in the clear coat, the worst of which is shown in the photo of the back.
 
Weight - 6.1 pounds
Nut width - 1.76 inches
1st fret depth - 0.85 inches
10th fret depth - 1.00 inches
Scale length - 25 inches
 
The guitar comes with a somewhat earlier Benedetto hard shell case.
 
Ships free in the United States, and for reasonable rates worldwide.