Django's guitar setup

Jazzaferri

Fascinating stuff. Thanks Bob......I always imagined tha Django played with a lowish action....nothing to base it on at all....just a gut feeling...and of course we will likely never know for certain.

Teddy Dupont

May, 1946. Extract from an article by Sam Adams who was at the recordings the String Quintet made in London in 1946. "The strings were of extremely light gauge and when I played a few chords I was amazed at the lowness of the action". - Pretty conclusive I think.

From an article by Allan Hodgkiss who borrowed Django's guitar for a radio broadcast when Django was taken ill in the UK. "Django's guitar was extremely responsive (I could easily raise the fifth and sixth strings a quarter of a tone with finger pressure alone)".

bluetrain

Teddy you're a pool of information! Thanks.

When I look at Django's playing in the rare videos that are available it doesn't look like the strings would be insanely high (>5mm) and when I listen to the recordings it doesn't sound like that either but if I look at Freddie Green's playing then I can see that the strings are very high. It's hard to believe that any solo guitarist would like to use very high action but for Freddie Green style tenor line rhythm playing it makes sense.

Buco

Teddy Dupont wrote: »

Pretty conclusive I think.

Wow, very conclusive, thank you!
That goes against the common wisdom, or what I thought was the common wisdom that he played with high action.
Probably, as Bob mentioned those observations were made long after the guitar wasn't in active use and the neck and the rest of the instrument went through changes.

Well, it seems his impecably clean sound is coming from a combination of the mics of the day, hi fidelity is sometimes overrated, and supremely well set up guitars which is another testament of how well the Selmers were built.

Jazzaferri

Thanks @Teddy Dupont You are da man.

Bob Holo

Teddy's quote is from 1946, so it's right in the ballpark. Next best thing to a time machine ;-)

wim

I haven't evidence to back it up, but I bet he (Django) played with high action - 4mm or more. You can hear it in the sound! If you have a guitar that moves a lot (like me) and you constantly annoyed by having to add or remove bridge shims, you will know the difference in sound too. I've played a lot of these guitars especially the ones gigging around the Paris jams, and I think many of the guys these days have them set up too much on the low side. They are trading off a better sound for ease of playing speedy runs (not a good trade in my opinion). Mind you the context of playing has changed, it's no longer necessary to fill a dancehall with a powerful sound like that and most of those paris gigs are amplified. But still, the sound suffers and you have less dynamic range available.

I spend a few days with Stochelo's guitar too, his was noticeably huge perhaps 4-4.5ish!! And he is the proof that you can get the best sound without sacrificing any speed, it just takes the 10,000 hours of hard yakka. If I was king of the world, I'd mandate 3.5mm minimum and anyone playing lower would be told to man up, build the strength in their hands or go take up ukulele instead

Don Price

WIM, I think you make a good point. I plan to raise the nut height on mine. The bridge height is already where I want it. However, since there is a zero fret at the nut area, how far can one actually raise that side without experiencing trouble? Anyone know?

Don Price

Bob Halo, do you know?

Al Watsky

If you have the minus fret too high your first fret will intonate sharp. If for some reason you want a very high action at the first fret you can move the position of the minus fret .015 or less, forward then you can raise the action at the first fret.
Unless your after really loud E,A,D you can stick with a minus fret thats .005 or so, higher than your first fret.
Its a balance that is struck between the action height/intonation and string take off point.

Its part of a good set up to adjust this for the player and the guitar as necessary.
Most GJ guitars , not talking about the elite builders , do not get this right.
Certainly too low just makes everything sound like a rattling mess and too high just hurts the hand.
Also remember that the smaller strings do not need as much clearance as the wound strings. That can be nuanced as well.