Just Got Michael Dunn #503 - The Double Whiskey

Dave Bricker

Michael Dunn is a Canadian builder who specializes in Selmer-style gypsy jazz guitars but who also makes archtops, resophonics, ukes, harp guitars and just about anything else. We spoke about a year ago about a design collaboration and the theme I came up with was to change the grain orientation of the top and use different shades of wood.

In keeping with Michael Dunn's habit of naming his instruments after Django Reinhardt tunes, I dubbed this design the "Double Whiskey."

Because I'm a graphic designer by trade, I also knew that I could get way too involved and art direct this into the ground. I chose instead to leave Michael Dunn with a sketch of the seed idea and then I left wood choices and design details entirely up to him.

It's nice to get a guitar in this or that type of wood, but there's also value in letting an artist do his work. Let a great builder choose their own favorite materials and you're likely to get their best-souding instrument.

After a week of overnight shipping courtesy of DHL, I opened the case and I have to say I'm thrilled with this instrument. It's a variation on his "Mystery Pacific" model with an internal resonator design that takes off where the original Selmer Macafferri guitars were. The pieces of the resonator "scoop" are alternating pieces of satinwood and ironwood.

Top is red cedar in two shades. The back is satinwood which I am unfamiliar with but it has a grain much like mahogany and a nice chatoyance that's not overpowering. There's also an ebony piece and the ninding switches from dark to light in contrast. The treble side is ebony and the bass side is half ironwood and half satinwood. Notice the screened soundport. The ironwood has an interesting appearance - mor elike a mineral or marble than wood. On the back are darts of ironwood, chakte-kuk and snakewood. The headstock and tailpiece are also ebony and ironwood.

Looking inside, the linings are also of red chakte-kuk. I keep discovering new details and subtle aspects of the design. Check out the heel cap as an example. Don't forget the fan frets. Back is double X-braced.

Django's personal Selmer was #503 and this one is Michael's 503rd guitar. I'm very very impressed with the workmanship and the sound and with Michael Dunn's aethetic tastes.

Selmer/Macafferi guitars, for the uninitiated, are surprisingly versatile, louder than most archtops and I'm not sure if it's the long scale or the special strings but they play like an electric. While they're primarily used for jazz and swing, you run no risk of being drowned out by a banjo and they're great fingerstyle guitars as well. This is a great design - somewhere between a flat-top and an archtop and often does not get the recognition it deserves as a great, historical guitar innovation.

More at http://www.michaeldunnguitars.com















Enjoy,

Dave Bricker

MichaelHorowitz

wicked cool! :shock:

pdaigle

Whoa! I think I just ruined my keyboard....

"Visually stunning" comes to mind....How does it sound?

Josh Hegg

The slanted bridge made me scratch my head until I looked at the slanted nut! What a design. How does it play?

Dave Bricker

The fan frets are absolutely transparent. If I handed you the guitar and you didn't know, you couldn't tell by feel that there's an inch of difference in scale between the high and low strings. That was another of Michael's surprises. When I first opened the case, I thought the bridge had gotten knocked around in shipping.

There are some real advantages to fanned frets as you get longer bass strings and shorter treble strings, and this effects both string tension and tone. Apparently, the fretting strategy was invented by John Rose about 400 years ago.

Dave

chap

I have seen that fanned fretting on those Charlie Hunter 8 string jobs

Dave Bricker

pdaigle wrote:

"Visually stunning" comes to mind....How does it sound?

I've been playing a Gitane 255 for a long time. This is a D-hole so is a bit more mid-rangy and less raspy, though I've always thought the Gitane was an incredible guitar for the money and a very good one at any price. "Raspy" is a bit of an exaggeration, but I do hear a lot of brittle trebles in many ofthe modern Selmer copies.

The Dunn is very loud and has a bit of an old-timey sound like a great old acoustic archtop. There's plenty of "old Selmer" in the mix and I imagine it will open up gradually as I work to make music worthy of the guitar. It's a new voice and I need to get used to it and find out how to squeeze out the sounds it likes to make best. Every instrument has its own personality and a good player learns how to bring that out.

I'm in the early infatuation stages of this new relationship but hear a lot of promise for the long-tterm. It's a great guitar.

Dave

Bohemian

Bizarre in a very cool way

Congrats !

Dunn is one of my favorite builders for really putting it out there,.

Glad to see he has redesigned the heel shape which I always thought to be squarish and clunky
Yours is anything but clunky.


Nice unit

a

wow..
what does the fan frets do for the tone?

Jack

Whoa...you've got cojones, Dave-I'd be way too self-conscious to play that guitar! Have fun with it!

Best,
Jack.

dennis

Jack wrote:

Whoa...you've got cojones, Dave-I'd be way too self-conscious to play that guitar! Have fun with it!

Best,
Jack.

you didn't seem too self conscious to be playing this at django in june...