AJL Model "J'attendrai"

aj

Hello Folks

As we all have seen this only video of Django, where he plays that french song "J'attendrai".
The guitar He is playing is very rare combination of oval hole with short scale, but 14 fret neck !!
- I've been asked to build this kind of guitar to one of my customers, and I made another one for promotion for this summer. the best ideas always come from customers. I have it on my already on my website. It can be ordered as VSOP or XO version too.

[img][/img]ajl-guitars.com/ajlguitars/index.php?id=135#.VRw0LrrS8e0

HCQ

Very nice!

MichaelHorowitz

This is a timely post as I just received a vintage Selmer transitional model from around 1934. Fascinating guitar, with a short scale 12 fret neck and an oval soundhole. As you might expect, the sound is heavenly!

http://www.djangobooks.com/Item/selmer-transitional-model

ratshooter

What a weird looking guitar. Are there other luthiers that build a similar model? Why does it have the fingerboard extension?

Buco

Sorry, are you new to Gypsy Jazz?
It's a Selmer copy, what's weird about it?

ratshooter

Buco wrote: »

Sorry, are you new to Gypsy Jazz?
It's a Selmer copy, what's weird about it?

New to Gypsy Jazz, but not completely new. The weirdness I was referring to was the fingerboard extension as on a D-Hole. The new short scale Selmer Michael mentioned above has a more typical profile for the end of the fingerboard.

Buco

Well I figured with a user name like @ratshooter you oughta know something about something. But I see what you mean now. Shelley Park often does fingerboard extension with her oval hole guitars.
Yeah I remember Bob Holo doing a lengthy post when someone asked about a guitar from the J'attendrai video. One of the things he mentioned is what AJ brought up on his site, which is that they took a fretboard from a short scale guitar and built a 14 frets to the body guitar. That and a whole lot other stuff, just like he knows how to do, it was a whole treatise on this particular model.
But this is about AJ and his guitars totally kick ass. I tried Olli's guitar briefly too, and old Adrian's guitar which was/is one of my favorite sounding guitars of all time.

ratshooter

I never claimed to know much about anything! Up until very recently, I thought the Howard Alden parts in Sweet and Lowdown were 100% idiomatic gypsy jazz in the style of Django. I got a Dupont because I checked out a Paul Mehling DVD from my local library and he talks about his Dupont guitar at the end of the video. A few years later, I found one on craigslist and picked it up. Stumbling onto this forum a few days ago has really opened my eyes! I'm just starting to see how deep the rabbit hole goes (I'm trying to get over my fear of looking into getting the gypsy picking book because it's hard to imagine not alternate picking).

Anyhow, thanks for your post, @Buco. I looked up the Bob Holo one you mentioned and see that the fingerboard thing is probably because they were using parts that were already sitting around. The "transitional time" sounds very interesting in the history of these guitars, and I would be interested to hear if this guitar sounds different than a long sale selmer oval hole made by the same builder.

Buco

You're not doing bad ratshooter, not bad at all. Gonzalo Bergara told me "Sweet and lowdown" was his inspiration to get into Gypsy jazz so you see you're in a good company.
And you'll be welcomed here.

Buco

stuart wrote: »

The guy's playing a Dupont MD-50 @Buco!

Yeah that part puzzled me too. It's all clear now.

Buco

I have it on DVD , (sweet and...) and I pop it in every few years or so and enjoy it all over again. Re Howard Alden, back then when I saw it the first time my ear wasn't trained to all of the small subtleties of the genre but even today when I listen to the soundtrack I still enjoy it a lot and think he did a terrific job.

Re short scale guitars, the only one I played extensively is this short scale D hole and it's louder and punchier than most guitars of this style but I don't know if there are any rule of thumb generalizations between long scale and short scale guitars.

Hats off to AJ for making this one available to order, sooner or later we'll get to hear from someone who played it.