What is the situation with these new D'Angelico guitars? Are these just another knock off stencil brand. If so I wonder who is building them. ...... I mean John died in 1964.

Yeah. I agree. I sent two emails to the GuitarStore in an effort to find out what the story was. They ignored me completely. Finally, their president sent me an email offering me a "great deal", but did not offer any explanation as to the nature and/or origin of the instruments.

In a nutshell, the name and recognizable identity including basic model designs and names, logos, fonts, headstock designs, name-brand 'heritage', etc. has been purchased and is being used- and, it seems, has been by more than one organization, or a series of them; apparently some were made in Japan, some in Korea, and... ? I don't believe there is any further direct linear connection between the original John D'Angelico guitars and these, and certainly even less than that of current Fender and Gibson and their origins. The D'Angelico marque has been "revived", not unlike Indian motorcycles.

Doesn't mean that they're bad or inferior guitars, though!

This came up in another thread recently. They do seem to be discounted Korean-made guitars, for the most part. A friend bought one, a few years back, and it was very nicely made, for the price, but it wasn't to be compared with the original line.