Django Reinhardt's Guitar
Murray Adelman
in fact since I began playing the guitar and for the first time I
asked myself what kind of guitar he was playing. Does anyone know?
Murray
gne...@mbox5.singnet.com.sg
If I'm not mistaken it's called a Macaferri. I *think* it's made out of some
sort of plastic. I'm not sure though and I hope someone corrects me if I'm
wrong.
Gerry Nelson
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bas...@my-dejanews.com
>I *think* it's made out of some
>sort of plastic.
While the guitars made by Selmer based on Maccaferri's designs weren't made
out of plastic (AFAIK), Maccaferri did go on to design plastic guitars and
violins. I remember that a couple of years ago, Elderly made a big deal out
of finding a stash of the plastic guitars in a warehouse in New Jersey...
And let's face it, where else would you find a lost cache of plastic guitars?
:)
Frank
tjc
>
> If I'm not mistaken it's called a Macaferri. I *think* it's made out of some
> sort of plastic. I'm not sure though and I hope someone corrects me if I'm
> wrong.
>
Late in his life, Mario Macaferri made plastic copies
of his guitar design and a ukelele. They occaisonally show up for sale.
Macaferri made much more money from his plastic clothespin
design.
Tom Mahar
Charles Park
Either my server or I had a breakdown, so I don't know if this case was
solved. There is an article in the Feb.96 AG issue about Django and his
guitars. He played Selmer guitars all his recording career. In 1940 he took
delivery of a guitar with serial #503.This is the guitar he played until his
death in 1953. Nothing noted about plastic.
Hope this helps. This is a very brief synopsis.
Charles Park
>
?
> :)
>
Hojo2X
genius, was noted for playing Selmer
guitars, made by the French company
best known for its saxophones.
They hired Mr. Macaferri to design a
guitar them and to work with the company
in much the same way as Lloyd Loar
(inventor of the F-5 mandolin and L-5 guitar) worked with Gibson.
Macaferri's design is the earlier one, with
the large D-shaped soundhole. He also
designed the elegant cutaway and external
appointments, and the whole look and
dimensions of the instrument.
What is not clear from photographs but is
very evident if you ever get a chance to
examine of these is that there is also an
INTERIOR resonating chamber in that
box - in essence, another guitar inside
the guitar.
This proved awkward, expensive and
difficult to manufacture, and Selmer
wanted to simplify the design. Whether
this is why he left or there were other
issues at stake is unknown to me, but
Macaferrri left Selmer. The company
took his name off the labels and the
advertising, abandoned the internal
resonator construction, and went to a
small oval soundhole in place of the
large D-shaped soundhole. The
external profile remained the same,
which makes them seem similar, but
the newer Selmer guitar (as opposed
to the original Selmer Macaferri guitar)
was a radically different instrument.
One that Django preferred, by all
accounts. As soon as the new model was
available he was playing one, and stuck
with it for the rest of his career. His
brothers playing rhythm backup used
the old Selmer Macaferris, but he used
the new Selmers for his dazzling lead
work.
There are a few photos extant of Django
playing an archtop, but these were taken
when he was on his American tour with,
I believe, Duke Ellington's band.
(Somebody correct me if I'm wrong - it
might have been Count Basie.) In any
event, for some reason he had left his
Selmer behind in France, and so was forced
to play a guitar provided for him, which
was an archtop. Which he hated.
Original Selmers of either variety are
exceedingly rare, and correspondingly
expensive. But Saga was importing a good copy of the Selmer oval hole model
for a
number of years. I played one, and could
see where someone playing unamplified
in a Paris nightclub would like it - it was
one of the loudest flat tops I've ever
played. It had an extremely long scale
length, too: around 26 1/2 ", if memory
serves.
If you can find someone willing to part
with one of these reproductions, they're
a good copy. There's also a woman
in Victoria BC or Seattle building them, as
well. She was profiled in Acoustic Guitar
Magazine a few months back. Anyone
have her information?
Wade Hampton Miller
DelphiBlue
Modele Jazz.
"Often erroneously identified as a Maccaferri guitar, the oval soundhole Modele
Jazz is markedly different from the D-hole instrument that Mario Maccaferri
designed for the French design company. The oval soundhole model was designed
by anonymous Italian Selmer emplyees and features several advancements."
Dennis McHenry
Harry Katz
>
> There are a few photos extant of Django
> playing an archtop, but these were taken
> when he was on his American tour with,
> I believe, Duke Ellington's band.
> (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong - it
> might have been Count Basie.) In any
> event, for some reason he had left his
> Selmer behind in France, and so was forced
> to play a guitar provided for him, which
> was an archtop. Which he hated.
The reason, I read somewhere, that he left his own guitar in France
was that he was accustomed to guitar makers giving him their
instruments to play when on tour in Europe. I read that he was
surprised and disappointed that no American company gave him a guitar
when he arrived for his American tour. It did not say where he
finally did manage to get a guitar to play -- probably had to buy one!
--
Harry Katz
Murray Adelman
to hold his own in the band--but just, at some places.
Murray
Hojo2X
>to hold his own in the band--but just, at
some places.
>
his American recordings, then, because
there's never any spot in the original Hot
Club of France recordings that I've heard
where he's in anything other than complete
command. He and Grappelli have a marvelous interplay, while the Reinhardt
brothers chunk away in the background.
The American recordings I've heard, on
the other hand, are true examples of a
fish out of water. It's pretty clear that the
band arranger didn't have a clue as to what
is was precisely that Django did, and as for
Django, well, he sounds irritated and bored.
There are, as you've indicated, occasional
flashes of brilliance on his part, but overall
I found the music pretty sad to listen to.
Mr. Katz jogged my memory, and I recall
the same story about Django expecting a
free guitar, and his being outraged and flabbergasted when he didn't get one.
The archtop he ended up using was a
loaner - it was the band's regular rhythm guitarist's backup guitar or
something.
He was quite vocal about his disdain for
the instrument, from what I've read, and
over all his American tour was not a happy
experience for him (or for those playing
with him.)
Wade Hampton Miller
Bob Abramowitz
SURELY right about the big deal going on for way too long, but Elderly
did indeed advertise their stash of these thingies. I remember their
pre-Internet catalogs from that era, and the Plastoferris were real big.
Bob Abramowitz
ka...@pobox.com wrote:
>
> Actually, that was Mandolin Brothers and that big deal went on for years too
> long ;-)
>
> In article <6pspid$nbf$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
> bas...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> > gne...@mbox5.singnet.com.sg wrote:
> >
> > >I *think* it's made out of some
> > >sort of plastic.
> >
Han Speek
Hi,
Mario Maccaferri originally designed his guitar for nylon strings
(he was, after all, a performing classical guitarist of some fame),
and for those the internal sound chamber is said to add considerably
to the sound of the instrument. On Selmer's request he adapted the
design to steel strings, and it turned out that the sound chamber
had hardly any effect - so it was removed, with Maccaferri's consent.
The change from the D soundhole ("grand bouche" or bigmouth, as it was
often referred to) to the small, oval hole was inspired by another Selmer
product that they tried to sell at that time: a soundhole pickup, which
didn't fit in the D soundhole. Maccaferri did not like this change from
an acoustic point of view, and this quarrel caused (after some earlier
financial disagreements) the split between Maccaferri and Selmer.
Han.
BTW the Saga Selmer copy Wade refers to is highly inadequate, due to the
incorrect placement of the soundhole, different bracing pattern and
materials used. They were cheap, though, compared to decent Selmer copies.
For a good Selmer copy, check out builders like Michael Berg
(http://www.coastnet.com/~bergguitar/) or Lawrence Nyberg
(http://www.ice.el.utwente.nl/~han/bouzouki/nyb_cat.html), both based
in Canada.
--
H. Speek, B.Sc. E-mail: h...@ice.el.utwente.nl,
Univ. of Twente, Dept. EL, ICE group H.S...@el.utwente.nl
The Netherlands WWW: http://www.ice.el.utwente.nl/~han/
ade.jazz...@gmail.com
Django's main guitar was a Selmer number #503 with a small oval sound hole, it was made of wood, spruce top with laminated rosewood back and sides and a walnut neck with an ebony fingerboard.
The Maccaferri guitars were made under the direction of Mario Maccaferri in France, during his time in the Selmer factory and usually had a large D shaped sound hole, after he left Selmer's continued with guitar production and introduced the small oval hole and blanked Maccaferri's name from the internal paper label.
The plastic guitars came much later circa. 1953, they were made in America.
I have owned several Selmer's, including a 1933 D hole Maccaferri, a Selmer tenor 4 string guitar converted to 6 strings, I still have an original plastic Selmer and a beautiful Selmer Eddie Freeman guitar in its original case.
Best wishes
Ade Holland
Reading U.K.