Alternative Guitars

Bohemian

I am curious if there are any Gypsy Jazz guitar players who use something other than the SEL/MAC or clones . An example would be Sephora who started off using Martin Drednaughts, or Oscar Aleman and the National Tri-Cone
Specifically interested in players that use archtops, particularly Europeans.
Looks like Paulus Schafer could be listed.

Also interested in any recording of these instruments playing Gypsy JAzz.

Also what ever happened to the Dell Arte f hole model a Di Mauro I believe. Never did get to hear one of these.


Also check out a luthoer in Switzerland named Piquet, ( web site I belive) and his interpretation of a Gypsy JAzz guitar.


Thanks

mmaslan

Ever seen this?

http://www.gruenacousticguitars.com/

Bohemian

http://www.piguetguitars.com/g120199.html

Bohemian

http://www.levoi.freeserve.co.uk/WHAT'S%20NEW.htm

hmmmm look familiar ??

Cuimean

Here's a site with tons of weird old German archtops:

http://jazzgitarren.k-server.org/menu.html

Check out the Lang guitars. They're pretty attractive, and one model even has a Selmer-style cutaway.

I've heard that some of the Alsatian and German players used Framus and other German brand archtops. Makes sense; if you're not a gear fetishist (no offense, guys) and you can't afford an imported guitar, you'll use what's cheap and available.

I've mentioned The Easy Club on this site before; they were a Scottish band that played Scots songs with Eddie Lang/Django-influenced rhythms. They played guitars made by Stefan Sobell that attempted to combine characteristics of arched and flat topped guitars. There are pictures here:

http://www.sobellinstruments.com/

Here's Fylde's interpretation of the Selmer style:

http://www.fyldeguitars.com/egyptian.html

And the Grimes version:

http://www.grimesguitars.com/models/jazz_fs.html

As far as non-Sel/Mac players...many on this site have discussed Ninine Garcia's playing. On his latest album, he uses an Epiphone archtop. I believe Hans'che Weiss and Bobby Falta also play electric archtops. Babik played a 335. And as far as someone like Aleman goes, I'd say it's hard to apply our sort of gear dogma to that generation of players. Gibson and Epiphones were certainly the most visible guitars in jazz from that era, but there were also plenty of folks around the world playing other varieties. I've seen photos of '30's American guitarists with regular Martin flattops, 12-string guitars, resonators, and so on. Europeans had their own local brands and makes; some played imported archtops, some played flattops, some played homemade guitars assembled from scrap wood (Joseph, I'm looking in your direction).

Paganini

I think it's great to use an arch-top for soloing in the gypsyjazz-style but I have my doubts about how suitable it is for the gypsyjazz rythme, at least I do not manage to get a good rythme sound.

On our website I play a solo over Minor Swing with a Washburn Montgomery. To create some variation in the sound of your band it's nice to use an electric jazzguitar now and then.

Bob Holo

Wow - that's interesting. I have just the opposite reaction to archtops. Unless they're amplified, I don't find that they have the volume necessary to pick (what little picking I do) but I find that (pre-Benedetto) archtops can be great for acoustic rhythm. Nice ones like Epiphones / Gibsons / Vegas are dry and very choppy. It's hard to get that Gypsy gracenote cha-Chunk... because the strings are stiffer, but for straight-four it's a dream. A gent from a swing band in the midwest clued me in to the way to do Gypsy rhythm on an acoustic archtop - really get a steep pick angle (IE< the pick is turned almost perpendicular to the strings) and move up toward the base of the neck. If you do this, the strings "soften up" and you can get a nice midrange-heavy chop that really drives. I love playing rhythm on an archtop but I'm still in heavy-duty learning mode and so I try to stick to my GJ when working on technique (which is most of the time

Paganini

Bob,
I agree, acoustic it's no problem to get the hotclub rythme but I was talking about amplified. The Washburn I have is not loud enough to stand any gypsyjazz guitar
When we perform on stage we always play amplified and an amplified archtop does not give that short tight gypsyjazz rythme, imo.

Bob Holo

Yes, amplified it is a different thing altogether.

I like that late Django electric archtop sound, but it is definitely different than acoustic La Pompe or an amplified acoustic or even a Stimer-Selmac combination.