Old French D-Hole Django Guitar

Wolfi59

I also don´t think it´s a Castelluccia. I collected a lot of photos the last days camparing details, and there are more differences than commonalities. I will contact the french website on classical guitars that Jack quoted, and ask there. If I gather any new information I will let you know. And if I, at last, should not find any information on the origin - it really doesn´t matter, because it´s a fine rhythm guitar anyway, and I have fun to play it :-)

Thanks again for all your contributions!
Wolfgang

Josh Hegg

Ya let us know what you find out. It would be cool to close this thread with a some hard facts over my endless postulations!


Cheers,
Josh

Bob Holo

You might have a one-off?

Looking at the rosette - it is not traditional in pattern and if you look very carefully in the lower left and lower right you can see at the outside of the rosette that there are small gaps between the rosette strips and the soundboard. Gypsy Jazz guitar rosettes are not round and so cutting them and bending the wood for them is a little difficult to get used to because it is a different and more hand-work intensive process than banded designs on guitars with perfectly round rosettes... and the placement of the gaps is exactly where they show up if you don't pre-bend your rosette strips enough... because they don't simply expand into the channel evenly like round rosettes. The wood is more tightly compressed in the tight corners and doesn't expand quite as much. Based on that - it looks like the person who made this rosette was not used to doing this style of rosette... which opens up the possibililty that the maker of your guitar was primarily known for another style of guitar. The heel of the neck also looks very big and "buffed" for a Gypsy Jazz guitar... That may be another way to narrow the possibilities.

Hope that helps.

Wolfi59

I love detective work :-) . To further check this out I took two very close photos. Maybe you can see here more clearly what you want to point out. And good point with the neck. The neck is really special for a Django-guitar. It is more like the neck and fretboard of a classical guitar. That was one reason, why I liked this guitar so much when buying it - it was my first Django guitar and I´m coming from playing classical guitar and flamenco - so the neck felt very comfortable with me. Maybe the guitar is really a one off build by a classical-guitar maker.

Thanks,
Wolfgang

Jack

Agreed-I'd be very surprised if it turned out that the maker was primarily making these kinds of guitars. The neck is what led me to the classical guitar site. Good luck!

sockeye

Jack wrote:

I wonder if whoever runs this site might be able to help? They seem to have a good knowledge of the history of French lutherie, and have a 'gypsy jazz guitars' page.

That store is just down the street here in Philadelphia. I doubt they would know any more about this one than the collective knowledge here, but it might be worth a try.

I played a Gitane for the first time in that shop, in the days when they were dark orange and had a matte finish.

Josh Hegg

OH... the old D-500 was great! I had one and sold it... But at least it was to a friend.

Cheers,
Josh

Jack

I've still got mine, several guitars later...it mostly sits out by my computer for testing stuff out while I'm reading the forum. It does have its charms...

Best,
Jack.

Josh Hegg

I have a new one and it's still kicks some sweat mellow jams out. I like it for those mellow evenings just chillin' on the couch playing ballads to my self.

J

Bob Holo

Yep, I can just feel the sweat on the back of his neck as he's setting that rosette. He's thinking: "Man, the glue is drying and it's not expanding... should I rip it out and start again and risk damaging the channel when I clean the glue out?

... and then he pauses and thinks....

"No, it'll expand but it'll just take a little extra time because I really had to heat the wood up to get it to bend in those corners... and so he floods a little extra glue in there... covers it with waxed paper... clamps it down... and crosses his fingers... an hour later his wife hears him utter words not meant for tender ears.

... been there... done that... and bought the t-shirt!!

Still - it doesn't say anything negative about the builder or the guitar. Classical builders (sounds like this is the best guess at this point) are really good at building light resonant soundboards and those big classical necks if built rigidly are wonderfully stiff which means that they don't resonate with the guitar very much and so they don't steal its vibration - which makes for a louder clearer guitar. Mr. Maccaferri was a classical builder - and the design of the original steel-string Macs borrowed a lot from both classical guitars and mandolins.

Next step... who were the classical guitar builders active in the area when/where you bought it?