I am a close friend of Rudie Blazer’s and he started to build Selmers on my request. The first two guitars were build several years ago in a more flattop style, yet when Rudie had an original Selmer in the workshop for some time, he decided to build a small number of guitars in a traditional way.
I own the prototype, which is absolutely spectacular, very close to Selmer #645, its blueprint. He built two others, one for himself and the one that is for sale here. So all in all, there are just five „Selmers“ bearing his name at this time.
Allow me to add some infos on the construction of the guitar: Rudie takes a lot of time when building a guitar, and after the top is glued to the back and sides, they hang for at least a year in the workshop. Thus his guitars are very resistant to changes in humidity. I have seen hundreds of his and his partner Willi Henkes’ guitars and never heard of one developing cracks! This particular guitar does not have Brazilian rosewood back and sides (Michael corrected it in the video), but instead it is built from very old sheets of Indian rosewood laminates. Rudie has always used hot hide glue exclusively for his guitars and he even laminated the back and sides with HHG! The top is special „moon-logged“ Alpine spruce (if you believe in this things…) and features a nice pliage and the whole guitar is hand-varnished. The finish ages to a beautiful patina, as I can attest from my now 6 year old guitar that is in heavy use.
Although the guitar is lightly built, it is structurally very stable. Mine was knocked over several times and it even once fell from 1.50 m height out of my hand on a marble floor (don’t ask!) and had just some scratches and a bent tuning peg!
Over the years, I compared my guitar to several high end ones from European luthiers and never found a better sounding instrument!
Here you can hear my guitar on all solo passages from this CD:
Felt like we weren't seeing Michael's new guitar updates on the forum as much as we used to. I always like to see Michael's guitar posts just to see what is moving thru his shop.....always fun.
Comments
Beautifully built with awesome tone and projection! Makes me wonder what his famous pre-war Martin flatop copies sound like.
This is a great guitar!
I am a close friend of Rudie Blazer’s and he started to build Selmers on my request. The first two guitars were build several years ago in a more flattop style, yet when Rudie had an original Selmer in the workshop for some time, he decided to build a small number of guitars in a traditional way.
I own the prototype, which is absolutely spectacular, very close to Selmer #645, its blueprint. He built two others, one for himself and the one that is for sale here. So all in all, there are just five „Selmers“ bearing his name at this time.
Allow me to add some infos on the construction of the guitar: Rudie takes a lot of time when building a guitar, and after the top is glued to the back and sides, they hang for at least a year in the workshop. Thus his guitars are very resistant to changes in humidity. I have seen hundreds of his and his partner Willi Henkes’ guitars and never heard of one developing cracks! This particular guitar does not have Brazilian rosewood back and sides (Michael corrected it in the video), but instead it is built from very old sheets of Indian rosewood laminates. Rudie has always used hot hide glue exclusively for his guitars and he even laminated the back and sides with HHG! The top is special „moon-logged“ Alpine spruce (if you believe in this things…) and features a nice pliage and the whole guitar is hand-varnished. The finish ages to a beautiful patina, as I can attest from my now 6 year old guitar that is in heavy use.
Although the guitar is lightly built, it is structurally very stable. Mine was knocked over several times and it even once fell from 1.50 m height out of my hand on a marble floor (don’t ask!) and had just some scratches and a bent tuning peg!
Over the years, I compared my guitar to several high end ones from European luthiers and never found a better sounding instrument!
Here you can hear my guitar on all solo passages from this CD:
Is the top domed or does it have a pliage?
It has a pliage.
Felt like we weren't seeing Michael's new guitar updates on the forum as much as we used to. I always like to see Michael's guitar posts just to see what is moving thru his shop.....always fun.
@richter4208 Over the last year the vast majority of guitars have sold before I even had a chance to list them on the site!
Yeah but we still want to see what we can't buy! 😅