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And his prices are still fair for an high end guitar. Plays and sounds beautiful.
great! i’ll check him out. yeah my gitane dg-255 just isn’t cutting it anymore. it’s far too wet and reverby and, when i’ve played dryer guitars, the issue isn’t really there, so i don’t find it to be a technique issue anymore
@Stamos666 everyone has mentioned great builders so I'll add buying advice.
Buying based on video you'll likely get a good guitar, but you won't know if it really speaks to you tone wise and feels good in your hands until you play it in person for awhile.
Some luthiers and sellers offer a 24-72 hour window to try it, and if you don't like it you only have to pay for return shipping. Make sure they have that type of policy before buying, and push for the 72 hours in case there's some humidity issues and you have to shim. 24 hours isn't really enough time.
Ideally, you would go to a luthier or seller in person and try multiple guitars - but I understand that's not always feasible.
Finally, with luthiers some may push for you to do a custom order. I would heavily recommend against this until you've played multiple high-caliber guitars (for more than a few minutes) and can call out exactly what you like / dislike about a guitar. Tone will still be a toss-up, but if the guitar feels good that's a big part of the equation.
yes definitely. i’m not going to drop that much cash without an approval period.
question: what kind of guitar did Django use during his Hot Club/Stephane Grappelli era? my favorite tone is the 1942 recording of Belleville. that’s the sound im looking for, if there are builders that make replicas!
i can play the song well and get a good tone on my DG but i know i can get better from the guitar.
Since Django got his famous Selmer #503 in 1940, it's extremely likely it was that guitar on the 1942 recording. Some things about it:
@geese_com had a Barault 503 replica, maybe reach out to him. Barault was commissioned by the Musee de la Musique in Paris to replicate the guitar for a recording so he's the builder with the most amount of time with it. Though, as some may mention - Barault's tops are very thin (like Dupont's) so they react to weather changes in a bad way.
Something Django had to live with, and some modern day players would rather avoid.
His very first recordings with the QHCF were with a flat-top, he switched to a D-Hole Selmer for much of the 30s. He was playing a transitional model small hole by the time of the 1938 UK tour.
1942 was three years after his partnership with Grappelli ended abruptly. It’s harder to know what he was playing during the Nazi occupation and even harder to pinpoint gear used on recordings, but he most likely was playing a small hole Selmer.
Barault is good for a vintage Selmer sound, Bumgarner has nailed the Di Mauro sound, which I personally prefer. Barault was the luthier Selmer went to when it flirted with restarting the guitars a few years ago, and he also made the guitars for the Etienne Comar Django film.
There isn’t a luthier in the world who can make you like Django sadly.
I wouldn't rely on old recordings to tell me how a guitar might've been like in person. Just recently, @DoubleWhisky experimented for fun with adding IR file (model of some vintage microphone) to the recording he made on his Dupont and the end result is that guitar sounds nothing like itself on his other recordings but a lot like something on Django's old recordings.
Along the same lines you can also compare the sound of Fapy on his 94-96 album with Le Jazz, where they aimed to create a vintage sounding record, and any of his other albums and you'll hear the same difference.
Exactly. Recordings techniques have changed and a large part of the Django 'sound' was as much down to how it was recorded. As Buco says, listen to the Fapy 94-96 tracks for an example of how they replicated the same sound in the studio. I know a recording engineer who plays this style as a hobby and he hates those Fapy tracks just because the way it was recorded offends his hi-tech abilities.
What you hear on a recording and what the guitar sounds like in a room live are two different things; be sure you know what it is you are aiming for, what you want to hear from your own playing. (See other current topic on here about how to get the late '40s electric Django sound for more on that).
For my money, vintage Selmer’s are the most over-rated guitars in this field, everyone I’ve played has been a dog.
@stuology Absolutely, they don't all sound great and/or any given one doesn't have the sound that a particular player is looking for. For example, if you want to sound like Bousquet, Moreno, Tchan Tchou, the Ferre's etc then you'll need a Favino, or something that does what Favinos do (super barkey, nasal, big bass, etc.) Even the best Selmers just won't provide those qualities. When people are paying big money for a Selmer, they're looking for very specific qualities that you hear on Django's recordings and/or player's associated with Selmers like Stochelo or Fapy. For example, the 600-700 series Selmers have this very specific tonal profile that you hear on Django's acoustic Rome sessions recordings (he was playing 704: super complex, thick mids, creamy highs.) Those recordings IMO, along with many top Gypsy players I know, are actually regarded as Django's best acoustic tone on record and the only thing I've ever heard come close to that are Selmers in the 650s-720s range. Like this one we just got in:
The first note I played on it just screamed "Rome sessions!" 😀
With that said, I would also argue the best Selmers are from a purely quantitative, objective perspective, really outstanding instruments that posses a balance, projection, and response that you rarely find elsewhere. Is every one a gem? Definitely not but so many of them are.
In terms of "old school sound", Di Mauro's are great value and pretty awesome guitars. I have both a vintage f-hole chorus deluxe and a bouche en coeur. I bought the heart-hole in Paris, and had the chance to play them against a room full of Selmers. Aside from 1 specific Selmer, I still favored the Di Mauro's sound irrespective of the price and this is my favorite vintage guitar I've played.
In terms of modern builders, most of them have a "modern" sound. Every Bumgarner I've played has been exceptional. If i was buying a new guitar, they'd be top of my list, but they don't have that old school sound and feel...they're their own thing. I've owned several Dupont's and they're always pretty dependable, but also vary between individual instruments. I currently have a maple Dupont MD50e and played it against my friends MD50e, and I preferred mine hands down...like, I did no like his, and wouldn't buy it myself. I also have an early Dupont 12 fret nylon string, and it's an amazing guitar!