Strange Guitar

François RAVEZ

Hi everybody,

Does someone have any information about the maker of these strange guitars.

One was used by the guitarist of Emile Vacher Orchestra (sepia photo) and the other by his colleague from Orchestra Fernando (green photo).

Best

François RAVEZ

Tele295

I don't know about those, but they sorta have the same shape as the Italian Davoli Wandre electrics from the 1960s. I wonder if there's an Italian connection?

Svanis1337

I knew I had seen that guitar before and I was right! Here it's played by Baro Ferret on the Alhambra stage in 1938. Larry Adler on Harmonica.

frater

Just guessing but the headstock says Gerome...

François RAVEZ

Hi Svanis and Frater,

Thanks for the help. I also had that "I have seen that guitar somewhere else before" feeling and now I understand why.

Best

François RAVEZ

François RAVEZ

Hi Tele 295,

Thanks for the reference to the Davoli guitars which I had never seen before. Their shape was may be influenced by this guitar. When you are talking about guitar making (especially jazz guitar), I believe that there is always more or less an Italian influence (Maccaferri, Jacobacci, di Mauro, Busato, Castellucia, etc...).

Best

François RAVEZ

Cuimean

Could this one in Luciano Zuccheri's hands be a similar guitar?

http://www.jazzitalia.net/recensioni/lu ... TkKTaVmu0s

martin b

The mystery may be solved by a look at page 34 of Francois Charle's Selmer book, which shows an ad for the "Burns 1932" model guitar, from Alex Burns Ltd, Shaftesbury Avenue, London. Looks pretty much the same to me. Now whether Burns was a manufacturer or an importer or distributor may take a little more investigation. Nevertheless, Jimmy Messini felt it was "a sensation".

Archtop Eddy

Excellent find Martin! Here's s a copy of the ad. Interesting to see among its features are: "Bb (18th fret) obtained with ease", "Handsome 'Thuya' finish. Absolutely unscratchable", -- and Your Old Guitar Taken In Part Payment. Time to round up that old Aria or Richwood and trade 'er in! AE

martin b

I don't recall ever having seen one of these, even though they must be around. Here in the UK you do sometimes come across early English steel string jazz guitars, Grimshaw, Clifford Essex etc, and although charming, they're generally not very enjoyable to play by modern standards. They do however put in context how revolutionary Maccaferri's designs were at the time. The pics above show some players apparently taking these seriously, it would be good to try one, to see how they compare.
In the meantime, I'm going to try and source some "Thuya"!

Matteo

"1. Intonation perfect at every fret."

Excellent! It looks a bit strange but if it was good enough for Baro... Where can I buy one? Who will build the first copies?