Old "mystery" guitar

Goatherd

A while ago, I posted a description and some pictures of an old "no name" guitar. I received some very helpful responses from folks on this forum. I am pretty new to the world of gypsy jazz and the gear involved. My lutherie experience is almost entirely old American guitars so some of the details of my mystery guitar were misleading, at least, to me.

Well, the happy ending of the story is that the guitar turned out to be a Busato made guitar, pre-1943, from the shop on the Rue D'Orgemont. But, the complicated side is, it's a lot scarier working on the guitar now that it is no longer a mystery.

But, I wanted to thank some of you for you guidance and interest.

Michael Bauer

Did this "Busato" happen to come from Canada? Do you happen to have some pictures?

MichaelHorowitz

Goatherd wrote:

Well, the happy ending of the story is that the guitar turned out to be a Busato made guitar, pre-1943, from the shop on the Rue D'Orgemont.

That's fantastic! However, I'd be curious to know what criteria you used to determine its authenticity. The name "Busato" gets thrown around a lot, with nearly every old labeless French guitar on eBay being sold as such. Very few actually can be confirmed as Busatos and many buyers have been burned purchasing such instruments as in most cases they are worth far less than half of what they paid.

Thanks,

M

Bob Holo

If you want to identify whether the guitar is a Busato, get pictures either to me, or Michael Horowitz, or Michael Bauer, or Jacques Mazzoleni. If you're in Europe, Francois Charle or Maurice Dupont or Benoit d'Bretagne - and I think Killy Nonis and Leo Eimers have some experience with them too - possibly the guys at Guitare Village a few miles south of Paris and/or Palm Guitars in Amsterdam.

If it's a good guitar - fix it and play it and love it without reservation. There are a lot of great sounding old gypsy mystery guitars, nearly all of which have nought-all to do with Busato but are still wonderfully groovy, loud, characteristic sounding old instruments. Just be careful if you plan to resell it as the gents above have indicated, there has been a bit of "Busato Inflation" recently.

It brings to mind something the classical luthier Richard Brune once said: "Of the 400 or so guitars Santos Hernandez made, only 1,200 have survived to the present day."

Michael Bauer

That Brune quote is one of the best ever! That was a coffee-through-the-nose line.

Bob Holo

Yah ;-) I had that reaction first time I heard it too.

By the way, here's a cool Santos Hernandez thing I came across when checking to see if I was attributing that quote right.

It's a wonderful vid on a 1919 Santos Hernandez... took me a couple of seconds to recognize that it was Myrddin De Kauter. Every time I hear him it boggles my mind wondering why he is not a household name. There are two great phone videos on Youtube that someone took of him playing at Samois a few years ago - sitting outside of one of the food tents playing - people are stepping over him with beer & food in their hands while he's laying down this righteous avant-garde flamenco that should have drawn a big crowd - but only ~3 people even noticed. Somewhere in an alternate universe he's probably touring with Paco de Lucia, but in this universe apparently he's yet to be discovered.

http://vimeo.com/19697159

Michael Bauer

Whoa! Amazing playing and an equally amazing guitar! Thanks for sharing the link!

noodlenot

thanks for the link (and for the Brune quote). I think Santos Hernandez´ used one of the more refined palntillas/body shapes in guitars. and that guy plays wonderfully.

noodlenot

in fact, i liked his playing so much that i went after some other vids from him and found this on yotube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wwV2SK3H3Y is he both right and left handed or is the image reversed (his hairdo is symmetrical to the vimeo link).

sorry for the Off-topic.

Bob Holo

I think he's a southpaw... maybe they mirrored the image to make it easier for right handed students as I think basically that vid was an advert for an upcoming online lesson series. Patrick Saussois, when he'd give lessons would say: "Just listen - don't watch my hands or it'll twist you in a knot." (or something like that) He had a nice lefty Dupont, but he could play any guitar. He'd just flip them over and play them upside down with the treble strings on top.

crookedpinky

My partner and I were sitting right beside Myrddin De Kauter when the video that Bob Holo mentioned was taken. I had no idea at the time who he was but he was magnificent, much better than whoever was on the main Samois stage at the same time. The music just seemed to flow from his fingers and it was a truly magical moment, I'm so glad someone filmed it. This just goes to show that fame and recogniton dont always go to thsoe who should have or deserve it.