1951 Selmer Petite Bouche Guitar #863 with ORIGINAL Case

MichaelHorowitz

1951
Selmer Petite Bouche Guitar #863 with ORIGINAL Hardshell Case

pinkgary

Does that come left-handed?

Michael Bauer

I heard this guitar through the telephone last night and it sounded terrific! I'm sure it is even better face-to-face, and the original case is just too cool!

Michael, I think the neck is rosewood, not mahogany, not that it matters much.

Someone is getting a nice guitar!

Phil

Michael - please be sure to play us a sample on your youtube channel...might I request "Danse Norwegian"?

MichaelHorowitz

Thanks Michael...in my haste to get this up I inadvertently wrote that the neck was mahogany. :oops:

I'll try and get a vid up soon!

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Craig Bumgarner

What a beauty! If anyone ever doubted that Selmers actually had a pliage, these pictures certainly prove they did, in 1951 at least. Looking forward to the video.

I keep wondering about rosewood necks and how fundamental they might be to the Selmer sound. Not all had them of course, but I still wonder.......

And what kind of rosewood might that be I wonder?

Craig

MichaelHorowitz

Yes, the pliage is massive on this guitar! You can clearly see exactly where they "folded" the top.

The solid rosewood neck definitely makes the guitar a bit heavier...tone wise it's hard to say what difference it makes without comparing to some other Selmers which I'm a bit short on right now.

One amazing thing though is how close the Dupont VRB sounds to this real Selmer...it's uncanny! Dupont definitely gets my vote for most accurate Selmer copy. The VRs have all the little subtleties....the midrange thickness, complexity, and shimmery highs are all dead on.

The Dupont Busatos are the same way...it's funny if, you play a Dupont Busato next to a Dupont VRB you hear the same differences that you hear when you play a vintage Busato next to a vintage Selmer. Clarity, simple, direct Busato type tone vs. complex, fat mids, shimmery Selmer type tone.

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Jack

Any good stories about how you came by this one?

MichaelHorowitz

Nothing that compelling....I just knew someone who wanted to sell it.

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Michael Bauer

Michael, I agree about the quality of Dupont's "copies" I played a Dupont Busato next to five real ones at Jacques Mazzolini's, and while it didn't sound exactly like any of them, if you averaged the real Busatos' tone and volume out, you pretty much had the Dupont sound. Maurice did a nice job of capturing the essentials. And the Dupony necks tend to be easier to play than the vintage Busatos, I suppose because they are still perfectly straight, while most vinttage necks have their challenging areas.

Ditto with the VR's. The biggest difference I have found between my (Michael's old) VRB and the Selmer is that the treble on the Selmer is louder and more distinct than on the Dupont. Part of that may be that the Dupont has 11's, while the Selmer has 10's. My Selmer is getting better and better with playing (after living in the case for 25-30 years), but the highs are already amazing...loud beyond belief and so full of character...much more complex than a Busato.

Like I said, I got to hear this Selmer through the phone last night, and it is really, really good. Since they were both in the Selmer workshop at the same time (They were shipped 19 days apart.), I hope we'll be able to get #862 and #863 together again one day and record them.

MichaelHorowitz

One thing that is fascinating about this Selmer is that it sounds very good with really low (sub 3mm) action AND light strings. I didn't really expect that as most guitars need 11s if you take the action that low. And most of the older guitars usually like higher action.

Yes, the guitar does buzz somewhat at this height...but some guitars buzz in a good way and that's the case with this guitar. The buzz you get when you dig in is actually kind of nice! Duponts are also like that...which is another reason they are good for people who want to get ultra smooth playability without loosing tone/projection. This is one of the big differences I notice with the Asian guitars...you can't really have both. If you jack the action up the sound gets better but they get real hard to play and vice versa.

There's been a lot of speculation as to how Django's guitar was setup...after having this Selmer around I believe it's possible that he had rather low action as the Selmer seems to be able to handle it nicely with light strings.

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