Florentine vs. Venetian Cutaways

"The sharp one is Florentine, as in the sharp tines of a fork." That's not much of a memory aid. I like the one I came up with better. 'Venetian is voluptuous' (as in curvy)

I prefer the "voluptuous" cutaway as well.  As I get older, I try to stay away from as many sharp edges as possible!     

While I don't like the looks of cutaways on acoustic guitars, I have owned two hollow body guitars with cutaways.
In 1967 I worked at Stelco, a Hamilton steel company and was making enoughmoney that I could afford to buy a used ES175. This one had a "florentine" cutaway and I can't imagine an ES175 without the pointed cutaway, so it looked just right.



I sold the guitar in the early seventies to buy a D-18, but always kinda missed it.
In the late nineties I was recording and the studio owned an Epiphone Emperor with a Venetian cutaway. I spent a lot of time with that guitar and a few months later, the owner of the studio phoned me and offered me the Epi at a price I couldn't turn down.  I bought it and played it for a few years till my youngest brother Dave offered to buy it.  Since I knew that he would get more use out of it than I did, it went to him.  When Dave passed on, his son Jeff inherited the Emperor.  I liked the looks of the rounded cutaway on the Emperor as well.  Here are Dave and me in Ottawa, jamming in our friend's front room.  Dave is playing the Epi and I'm playing my old Gretsch with no cutaway.