Selmer on Ebay ?

Barengero

…and Francois Charle states that for the series of guitars numbered from 500 to 600 the numbers were not stamped on but were hand written. This guitar has the number "510" stamped on. I think we can't take Charle too literally here. The No. 550 is definetely hand written.

Barengero

frater wrote:

That's a real weird grain pattern for a Selmer top... but I think it's original, it matches the 511's.

Here's a picture:

frater

I just noticed that the inscription "Mod. Django Reinhardt" cursive style, which I found a bit suspect, is identical in the 511 so that is correct too.

Barengero

frater wrote:

I just noticed that the inscription "Mod. Django Reinhardt" cursive style, which I found a bit suspect, is identical in the 511 so that is correct too.

frater

Any idea what the use was for all those holes? I suspect someone had two pickups installed with two different Volume/Tone controls but it's too horrible to be true! And what about the holes at the sides of the fretboard? And the two on the sides? Holy cow, this is going to be known as the Crop Circles Mystery Selmer :-)

Barengero

I think that there have been successively a lot of pickups on this guitar and yes it looks really weird. But it is a nice one though and I certainly decided on going for this guitar. But unfortunately it went over 1.000,-- EUR, which is all I have :?

perhaps one of you folks will be the lucky guy…

noodlenot

frater wrote:

Any idea what the use was for all those holes? I suspect someone had two pickups installed with two different Volume/Tone controls but it's too horrible to be true! And what about the holes at the sides of the fretboard? And the two on the sides? Holy cow, this is going to be known as the Crop Circles Mystery Selmer :-)

what have you found strange on the top, BTW? the circles or the actual grain of the wood? i don´t find the top too awkward - the grain could be straighter,but i´ve seen far worse. what i found strange is that you can actually see lots of silking on the bass side, but not on the treble. pics problem? pic ware? my eyesight is getting worse? non bookmatched top? - it appears bookmatched, with some runout.

edit: looking again, you can see some silking on the treble side of the lower bout. it´s a bit skewed, though.

Bohemian

Am I seeing things or:

Does the left/bass side of the guitar have bwbwb binding totalling 5 lines
and the treble or right side have bwbwbwb or 7 lines ? at least in the waist but then appears to have 5 lines at the top of the cutaway and at the lower bout. Odd.

The bridge center section does not match the moustachios..

Is there a reason why the photos were taken with the missing D string?

frater

noodlenot wrote:

what have you found strange on the top, BTW? the circles or the actual grain of the wood? i don´t find the top too awkward - the grain could be straighter,but i´ve seen far worse

I don't think I've seen worse in an original Selmer top! :-) Carpathian spruce used at Selmer's had usually a very straight, even and compact grain. I own a very special guitar, a D Hole built by Eimers using an original unused top of the first Selmer Maccaferri production (one Maccaferri himself brought to USA leaving Paris in 1939. ) Each time I look at it I marvel at the quality of the wood they were using those days. That said I've heard tops with totally twisted grain sing beautifully. One of the best guitars I ever played, a Kevin Ryan Mission Grand Concert, had a part of the top where the grain was simply warped... I discovered later he used this rare batch only on guitars costing 30.000/35.000 $!

noodlenot

Selmer used Carpathian spruce? i didn´t know - don´t have the Charle book. i thought tey would have used french spruce. Your guitar should be really something... wow, 70-80 year old spruce?

regarding not that straight grain, i don´t care particularly for very tight and straight grain (although i like it, it´s not a must) - quartering and runout are what i look fore in 1st place. and about twisted grain, well, bearclaw is considered a feature these days (and sometimes surcharged) and it couldn´t get much twisted than that... in fact i think (IIRC) that it could make the top a tad stiffer crosswise (at the expense of lengthwise stiffness).