Jazz Partout !

Jazz Manouche dans la plus belle tradition de
Django Reinhardt et ses héritiers

Guitare Manouche

If Django Reinhardt’s playing was fundamentally different, than that of any of his American contemporaries, so was his preferred instrument: a particular type of steel-stringed guitar manufactured between 1932 and 1952 by the French company Selmer, best known for it’s reed instruments.

Sections in This Article:

Revolutionary models from Maccaferri's Pipeline

After Maccaferri

Before Selmer's revolutionary model, the two options for an acoustic, steel-stringed guitar had been either a flat-top with a single, usually round soundhole in the middle or an arch-top with two violin-like f-holes on the sides. This new construction didn't fit on either classes, it was a type of its own, called later by names like Maccaferri, Selmer, Gypsy guitar, Guitare Manouche or even Django-guitar. It had slightly arched top and back, one characteristically shaped soundhole, easily recognizable body contour with a cutaway and a very distinctive sound.

The construction was exceptionally light with a thin solid spruce top, laminated back and sides and a walnut neck with metal reinforcements. This guitar type is usually played with a heavy pick using light silk-and-steel strings or – preferably – steel strings covered with silver plated copper like the famous brand Argentine from the French company Savarez. The action is typically high to allow forceful playing and a louder sound with more sustain.

The player used to a more conventional guitar is required to adapt his/her playing style considerably with this type of instrument. The bridge is closer to the edge, so the optional picking spot is further than usual on the right for a right-handed player, and the combination of light, relatively soft strings and a heavy pick adds even more to the discomfort of the uninitiated.

Chord G6. Left: Common jazz-voicing. Right: Gypsy style five-string voicing with the thumb on the lowest string

Because the natural sonic range for this type of guitar is somewhat thinner with less bass, it calls for chords with thicker voicing: Freddie Green's famous three-string chords should give way to Gypsy style four-to-six string chords, where the left hand thumb is usually reaching for the lowest note.

Light, soft strings are a constant source for doubtful wonderings, the common belief being: the heavier the strings, the more mannish the sound. While this is true in the flat-top world, where the beautiful heavy bottom is best reached with thick bronze strings, it won't fit in the Selmer/Maccaferri philosophy. As stated previously, the top is very thin, the finishing is extremely light and the bracing is simple. The wooden bridge directs the string pressure straight towards the slightly arched top. In order to have the top vibrating the way it's supposed to, this pressure must not be too high.

The guitar - if built correctly - will reward a humble player greatly for his/her efforts. Even thick voicings don't interfere with the bass and other instruments, they supplement them. Still, the sound of the individual strings is so piercing that this guitar cuts easily through a regular rhythm section, when played with the right picking technique. The long sustained, clear ringing high notes sing with the most marvellous tone.

Revolutionary models from Maccaferri's Pipeline

The story of this guitar type started, when the Italian born renowned classical guitarist and far-sighted luthier Mario Maccaferri was seeking ways to improve the sound of the guitar. His innovative prototypes assured Henri Selmer – the owner of the company – to offer him the leadership of the firm's new guitar manufacturing atelier. Maccaferri took the job: he hired and coached new, mostly Italian workers, designed all models and tools and basically covered the whole chain from design to production. You can read a comprehensive story about Mario Maccaferri at the pages of Vintage Guitars Magazine.

A photograph of Django playing the classical guitar Selmer Concert.

The first models at the beginning of the year 1932 were classical, gut-stringed guitars. The flagship model Concert already had many original design features: a large and characteristically shaped body, sealed tuners, two-piece bridge for the optimal string lengths for plain and wound strings, a cutaway and a broad D-shaped soundhole to allow installation of the internal resonator – sort of an inherent sound chamber. Though there exists a series of artistic, long-shadowed pictures of Django Reinhardt with this model, he never actually used it.

Henry Selmer was well aware of the growing popularity of jazz, because of the company's leading position in clarinets and saxophones,

Django with the D-hole Selmer Jazz in 1937.

so he got Maccaferri to design a steel stringed model, which quite naturally got the name Jazz. The design and dimensions were based on model Concert, but there had to be further modifications: the neck was stiffed with metal reinforcements to resist the heavier string tension, the arched top was braced more simply and instead of the glued-on bridge, it had a trapezoid tail piece and a floating bridge with glued moustaches to keep it unmoving. As a remainder of its predecessor, it had the same D-shaped soundhole and the typically classical wide neck, joint being on the 12th fret. Photographs reveal, that Django Reinhardt used this model during a few years period from 1935 on.

Maccaferri's enthusiastic imagination was a source for many other models, some of which were only prototype-like one-offs. The more successful ones include the four stringed Modele Eddie Freeman or simply Orchestre and the lap-steel guitar Hawaïenne.

After Maccaferri

When Mario maccaferri left the Selmer company in 1933 to pursue new challenges, Selmer simplified the catalogue: only the model Jazz stayed in production and even that was altered. Neck was lengthened so that the joint was now on 14th fret and the soundhole was reduced to a more easily built small oval hole. Because of the longer neck, the scale of this guitar was about one inch longer than in the earlier D-hole model or in a regular Martin-like flat-top.

Django's Selmer in Cité de la musique, Paris.

This oval-hole model with 14 frets to the body was the one, that Django Reinhardt played almost exclusively from late 1930s until his death in 1953; first solely acoustically, but after 1946 also amplified through a magnetic pick-up. Most of the rhythm guitarists in his various bands, however, never made the transition to the newer model, which is why the division of functions is so ordinary even today: oval-hole, petite bouche, for lead playing, D-hole, grande bouche for rhythm.

Selmer manufactured less than 1000 guitars in twenty years, before it ceased its guitar factory in 1952, but a number of luthiers of mostly Italian origin had started to copy and even redesign this guitar type so much in demand among French players. Among the most well known makers of the era we could list Favino, Busato, Castelluccia and DiMauro.

Today the list of active luthiers focusing on this genre is – thanks to the current popularity of Gypsy jazz – long and ever growing. I had my guitars built by luthier Leo Eimers from Holland, who's web site is worth a visit even if you're not planning to make investments. There you find, among other things, an amazing picture gallery of old vintage guitars referred to in this article and very good illustrated sections on building and restoring Selmer/Maccaferri styled guitars.

If you're interested in knowing more of this sonic pearl of French-Italian design, check out our Links page or – better yet – try to obtain a copy of Françoise Charle's wonderful book The Story of Selmer Maccaferri Guitars.

This page was last edited 2007-02-28
Page contents © 2003–2007 Kimmo Iltanen