Selmer Guitar

The Selmer Guitar (often incorrectly called a "Selmer-Maccaferri" or just "Maccaferri" by anglophones, as its inventor's rather than manufacturer's name was stressed in the early British advertising) is an unusual acoustic guitar best known as the favored instrument of Django Reinhardt. It was produced by Selmer from 1932 to about 1952.

Early Days - The "Maccaferri" Guitar

Early models have a large, D-shaped soundhole (the "grande bouche," or "big mouth"), which was shaped specifically to accommodate an internal resonator invented by luthier Mario Maccaferri - this was designed to increase the volume of the guitar and to even out variations in volume and tone between different strings. The scale, at 640mm, and fretting of the guitar of the early guitars was very similar to contemporary Gibson and Martin guitars, but with a wide fretboard more typical of a classical guitar. Many of these guitars, produced during 1932 and 1933, were sold to the UK market via Selmer's London showroom (which also distributed the guitar to regional dealers) and it was during this period that the guitars became known as "Maccaferris" to Britons.

The Internal Resonator

The resonator was not a successful innovation and was quickly dropped on Maccaferri's departure. Many of the remaining early instruments have since had the resonator removed. It was prone to buzzing and rattling and made repairs difficult. However, some modern builders of Selmer-style instruments (including Canadian luthier Michael Dunn, who uses his own design) have resurrected the feature.

elmer Guitars After Maccaferri

Maccaferri designed the original guitars and oversaw their manufacture, but his involvement with Selmer ended after 18 months. Over the next few years, the design evolved without his input and, by 1936, the definitive version of the Selmer guitar had appeared. These later guitars have a narrow oval soundhole (the "petite bouche," or "little mouth"), revised internal bracing and a longer scale length of 670mm. The vast bulk of guitars produced after the Maccaferri period were sold in Selmer's native France; these later guitars are always referred to as "Selmers" (as are the earlier guitars by the French).

While Maccaferri may no longer have been around (and his cherished resonator had been abandoned), the later guitars retain many unusual characteristics of his original innovative design, including the world's first sealed oil-bath machine heads and a top that is bent, mandolin-style, behind the floating bridge - something that contributes to the guitar's remarkable volume when played.

Use

Before the advent of amplification, Selmers had the same kind of appeal for European players that the archtop guitar did in America: it was loud enough to be heard over the other instruments in a band. The "petite bouche" model has an especially loud and cutting voice, and even today it remains the design preferred by lead players in Django-style bands, while the accompanying rhythm players often use D-hole instruments. (This was the lineup in Django's Quintette du Hot Club de France during its classic period in the late 1930s, and it remains the pattern for bands that emulate them.)

Today, the Selmer guitar is almost completely associated with Django Reinhardt and the "gypsy jazz" school of his followers. From the 1930s through to the 1950s, however, Selmers were used by all types of performer in France and (in the early days) in the UK. The first Selmers sold to the UK market were used in the standard dance band context and were associated with performers such as Len Figgis and Al Bowlly. In France, the Selmer was the top professional guitar for many years and can be heard in everything from musette to the backing of chansonniers. Leading players ranged from Henri Crolla to Sacha Distel. More recently, the style of guitar (albeit a modification developed by Favino) has been associated with Enrico Macias.

Copies, Replicas and Similar Guitars

Selmer did not make large numbers of guitars (fewer than 1,000 were ever built), and the company stopped production altogether by 1952, so original Selmers command high prices. Before the current rise in interest in Django and his guitars, other European builders were producing instruments emulating the Selmer design: Busato, Di Mauro, Favino and Patenotte are examples. More recently other luthiers and small shops have offered either faithful copies or interpretations and extensions of Selmer designs, including Maurice Dupont and Gallato in France; Robert Aylward, David Hodson, and John LeVoi in the United Kingdom; Michael Collins, Michael Dunn, and Shelley Park in Canada; Dell'Arte Guitars in the United States; Leo Eimers, Gerrit van Bergeijk in the Netherlands, Geronimo Mateos in Madrid, Spain and Risto Ivanovski of Macedonia.Also, the master Branko Radulovic from Kumanovo (Macedonia) is making replicas as D-hole or Oval hole copies using original reciepts to build them.

elmer Guitar Models

Although best-known for its steel-string D-hole and oval-hole guitars (known initially as the "Orchestre" and later the "Jazz" model), Selmer - during the Maccaferri period - also made and sold Maccaferri-designed classical guitars, harp guitars, 6- and 7-string Hawaiian guitars, tenor guitars and the "Ediie Freeman Special", a 4-string guitar with the scale-length and body-size of a standard guitar, designed to be used with a special Reentrant tuning that was briefly successful in the UK market. Most of these "other" instruments featured Macaferri's distinctive D-shaped soundhole and many contained the resonator. Production of all but the Modèle Jazz had ended by the mid-1930s.

External links

* [http://www.lutherie.net/bckgrnd.html Background on Selmer guitars]
* [http://www.gypsy-guitars.com French Jazz Guitars]
* http://www.gypsyjazz.net]
* [http://www.acoustic-guitars.com Maurice Dupont guitars]
* [http://www.godefroyguitars.com Godefroy Maruejouls, maker of Selmer style guitars]
* [http://www.burrowsguitars.com Jared Burrows, maker of Selmer style guitars, with photos]
* [http://www.gypsyguitars.com Dealer of vintage Selmer guitars, with photos]
* [http://www.michaeldunnguitars.com Michael Dunn, maker of Selmer-influenced guitars, with photos]
* [http://www.parkguitars.com Shelley D. Park, maker of Selmer style guitars, with photos]
* [http://www.eimers-guitars.nl Leo Eimers, maker of Selmer style guitars, with photos]
* [http://www.gitaarbouw.nl Gerrit van Bergeijk, maker of Selmer style guitars, with photos]
* [http://www.gypsyguitar.de Gypsyguitar Norman Ort, dealer of Selmer style guitars, with photos]
* [http://www.manouche-guitars.com Manouche Guitars, manufacturer of Selmer style replica guitars, with photos]
* http://www.ivanovskiguitars.com.mk/
* http://www.geronimomateos.com/