Django's Selmer

Micky Dunne

The brilliant young Australian picker Joe Robinson posted a pic over on Instagram saying "so lucky today to have played Django's guitar". I was dubious and replied 'I don't think so Joe'. Then I noticed he was in NJ and realised it must be Les Paul's. It was.

adrian

Here's the direct link:

AndrewUlle

Bronze strings?! Blasphemy... I know Les Paul is considered a guitar god, but I can't understand why he would butcher Django's Selmer. He could have bought a 100 Selmers to modify if he wanted - why irreversibly alter a one-of-kind guitar?

scot

When the first Dupont guitars came into the US back around 1992, for several years it was basically impossible to get Argentine strings here. And the pre-New Generation Argies that you could get in France had a lifespan actually measured in hours. If you played hard they would last part of one gig before the G and D began to unravel. And believe it or not, lightweight bronze strings actually sound pretty good. Check out any videos by Tony Green; he always uses them.

Back in the 50s, long before the whole vintage guitar phenomenon, no one would have had a second thought about modifying a guitar to suit a purpose. In fact, Fred Sharp similarly modified the "Django" Epiphone that Babik gave him - routed it for a third pickup, refinished it etc. Guitars were not totems in those days the way they are now - they were just old guitars, not worth much.

Django always played a fairly new guitar. When he died, 503 was what,13 years old? By modern standards, that's still a brand new guitar

Buco

Plus he, as we're all aware and enjoy the benefits of his inventions, had a mind of a tinkerer. If Les saw something as improvement over existing, there was no Django, Pope or anyone else stopping him

Jeff Moore

I've enjoyed all of this thread a lot. Pickitjohns post of Les Paul talking about Django is priceless.