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A light gauge steel string makes sense for several reasons.
At the time , the early 20th century , many instruments were strung with gut core strings. The trebles were plain gut.
Very unstable and temperamental and not very loud .
The steel E string for violin was a major innovation in the very late 19th century as I remember.
The Idea of a set of light gauge steel strings that could be used on lightly constructed stringed instruments must have been on everyones mind as soon as it was possible to draw wire in fine tolerances. The advantages for people traveling to tropical climates would have been huge.
My guess is that a string maker that was up to date in the 19th century was looking hard for a way to make steel core strings practical.
I'll bet that the Selmer Co. and Mario M. designed the guitar as soon as the strings were available or it was a syncretic development.
Weren't the first guitars S & M marketed gut strung ?
I'm pretty sure that Mozanni was all about the gut strings.
Just thinking out loud.
Sorry for the thread hijack !
Not a thread hijack, Al. It's true - Maccaferri's design was originally intended to be a classical, but the times, they were a changing... all of a sudden it was like: "Jazz, and Steel, and Django, Oh My!" and 80 years later, here we are looking back on the birth of Jazz Manouche. I think Michael Dregni might have issues with that drastic of an oversimplification... ;-) but it's true that MM didn't start out with the intention of introducing a new type of jazz guitar - at least not at first.
Here's what I think is interesting about the '24 Mac. The body is thin, 2 1/2 to 3", depending on location., and it's small, 14 1/2" at the lower bout. In fact, I'm guessing the '24 Mac has a reasonably similar volume to the resonator in the '32 Selmer. But it has a big sound, and can go toe-to-toe with the Shopis nylon string I have with a full, Selmer-sized body. It's got a big bass sound, too. It makes me wonder if this model isn't a precursor to the resonator guitars that he made with Selmer.
I have heard that the resonator in the early Macs worked best on the nylon-string models, and that makes sense to me. That was Maccaferri's real interest, and, as Bob said, what he was really aiming to make with Selmer. But it works pretty damned well in Selmer 103, too!
Thats interesting.
Wonder what Saverez sold before the Argentine ?
Interesting.Thanks.
AFA the classical guitar and Selmer connection.
Its so wonderfully obvious. Mario was a student of Mozanni after all.
Up until about 5 years ago I had never had an actual French jazz guitar to examine, always knock offs . I worked for 15 years as the repair man for a classical guitar dealer. I noticed some similarities.
When I did see an actual French steel string it was a repair that was straight forward enough that it didn't require much pondering. Once I had put it all back together I strung it up and played it; my immediate reaction was that it was a classical guitar hybrid.
The recommend action height is exactly the same as a flemenco guitar btw. It sounded like a classical guitar that someone had stuck a set of steel strings on.
Similar formants as far as the tone went. I was interested by the attack envelope and its playing characteristics. Pretty fascinating. Then I called the owner up and it was gone.
Turns out the thing was a late J. Favino. It had been bought and never played so it was very brash !
When I was I kid I had a little classic that I strung with a set of fender 150's . Try that some time and your going to notice that (until it explodes) it sounds a lot like a Selmer, in a general sort of way.
I love the fact that there are similarities between the models, its one of the attractions for me.
If you start looking at gram weight of bridges you can get crazy, but with instruments that are designed to be played acoustically all the little things add up to big changes.
AFA Selmer being in competition with Gibson or Epiphone goes I don't guess there was much going on. The arch top is so different. Shorter scale , different strings, different design and construction method. Not to mention shipping costs, which would be a major consideration.
I grew up playing an arch top and the only similarity ergonomically is in the relationship of the neck angle to bridge height. Thats comforting when going between an American guitar and a French one. That you can hang on to , just about everything else feels very different. In a good way.
You probably have some kind of secret recipe now! I had a look at the web sites of different luthiers building Selmer style guitars to see if any of them offered this kind of instrument. I started with the ones closest to me (across the Baltic Sea, Finland) and then a few others on the European continent and England. The closest I found was a 12 fret short scale oval hole transitional model, offered by John Le Voi in England.
Very interesting to read about scale length and harmonics! So much to learn.
What I Iiked about the D-hole guitar I have now, and which made me choose it, was a very good intonation, a stronger, more rich sound and easier visual overview of the fretboard. But, I had to sacrifice easy access to the higher frets and the clear, focused and dry sound of single notes, which I think the long scale oval hole models are better at. This Django 1937-38 Selmer seems like a really interesting blend. But how will 14 frets outside the body work with a short scale; will the high frets be extremely small and tight together?
From another thread on this forum: Here is Django plying an D-hole live in the Netherlands in 1937 (but the D-hole looks a bit smaller compared to the rhythm guitarists' Selmers):http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11883
Did you notice that Joseph is also playing a D-hole with a standard bridge like a classical guitar. Seems Joseph changed guitars as often as Django during this period... AE
BTW -- that InfinateLooper site seems very useful. Thanks for turning me on to it!
Wim, by all means stop by and hang out. Send me a PM and we'll exchange contact info. If you can get here a day earlier, our band is playing on the night of the 14th from ca. 10 to 2.