Selmer Guitars (2/2)
Selmer Guitars (2/2) – After Maccaferri had again left the Selmer-company in 1933/34, also the design of the guitars has been changed again. But where built according to all Maccaferri´s latest research and build-plans that he had created before.
The original transition-model “Grand bouche” (“big mouth” with D-shaped soundhole and cutaway), which was mainly played by Joseph Reinhardt, (Django´s younger brother and his first Rhythmguitarrist for years), was canceled in production.
This is Django´s last Guitar, Serial-No. #503 (image right), which was a Selmer “O-hole” model Jazz built in 1940, which he played until his early death in 1953.
Today this guitar resides in the Médiathèque of the Cité de la Musique in Paris, donated after his death by Naguine Reinhardt (Django´s second wife).
After Mario Maccaferri had widthdrawed from business, other famous luthiers took over the making of these kind of guitars, copying the look and the features of the famous Selmer-/Maccafferi-guitars.
The most famous names in this lutherie to mention are: Jacques and Jean-Pierre Favino, Bernabe Busato, Antoine DiMauro or Jacques Castellucia.
In our JM-Guitar-Gallery we present 2300+ images of these wonderful guitars (one of the biggest collections of old gypsyjazz-guitars on the net) made by these kind of luthiers as well as Selmer.
More Infos on the Selmer-company and their hiostory as well as the famous Selmer-Guitars you will find in our article-series on “Features of original Selmer-Guitars” and “History of Selmer“.
Also a well done description on the history of Selmer with detailed facts and lots of images has been made by R. Francois Charle, who was a collector and expert, with his book “THE STORY OF SELMER MACCAFERRI GUITARS” (image left). He also did run a guitarshop in the middle of Paris, but meanwhile has retired.
Today by the demand for these guitars is becoming bigger and bigger in a pretty active Django-scene, so meanwhile worldwide more and more luthiers started to build these world-famous guitars (for almost every purse) still copying the original building-plans of Mario Macafferri. See also “Django Guitarmakers” .
Regrettably the strong demand for old original gypsyjazz-guitars, especially for Selmer and Busatos, today is often used by criminals to generate profit from it. Be sure to also read our article-series about Faked Selmer, Faked Busato and Fake Favino-guitars, as well as “Warning on faked gypsyjazz-guitars” on these subjects. It is to announce a warning about that as very often on the internet faked guitars have been offered as “true originals” for high prices – so take care!
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