JWC Awesome !!!!!!!

frater

I don't think it's Sitka, if I remember well it's European Spruce, perhaps Engelmann, not sure. AAA quality with evident bear-claws was used in the beginings and your n° 65 probably still sports that...

Jeff Moore

Thanks Frater.
I'd like to sometime play a JWC long scale, given this short scale guitar's quality.

Elliot

Frater is correct, They are made with European Spruce, the trad classical topwood as were Selmers. Mine was hand selected by Tony from the first batch for fronting him the money early, and it looks like bear cubs were raised on it. It was the first sold in the States.

There is pliage on the Manouche Morenos as well, btw.

Bones

How would you describe the tone on the Modele Jazz?

Relatively dry or wet compared to a Dupont?

Ringing/overtones/'reverb'?

thanks

Bones

"There is pliage on the Manouche Morenos as well, btw."

Do you have a link for the Manouche Morenos?

thanks

Elliot

Bones, sure

http://www.manouchenorthamerica.com/

How I would describe the tone: Assuming you were asking me (apologies if you weren't), they are very much the original classical-derived type of gypsy guitar, not in the current fashion for the 'dry' sound. The closest comparison other than a JWC would probably be a Shopis, since they have very similar topwood. The intonation on mine is excellent. I play it against Givone's Selmer on the CD when I am doing the arp excercises and I have trouble telling them apart, except I seem to be the one making all the mistakes and he isn't. So the body tone is substantial but doesn't hang around enough to be called 'reverb'. The basic Duponts are a little more high end accented and less 'nasal' on the bottom strings until you get to the VR, but now I believe we'd be talking European Spruce tops again.

That's about the best I can do! All comparisons here are meant to be objective, 'quality' to be left to the user, but there's no denying the bang for the buck ratio of the Manouche is fantastic once it is properly set up, frets checked, all that good stuff you wished was already done when you buy it new which they have taken care of on the JWC, as well as the owner you might get it used from.

frater

One substantial difference between the "old" Manouche and the hand-made JWC is the Manouche has a forced top while (for the first time) Tony is now introducing the pliage in the original Selmer fashion (at least he told me so: this is not reported on the JWC site). Plus you have a walnut neck instead than a Mahogany one (which is the right way to go). On request you can have a 3 parts neck, no truss rod and all the things you would expect in an original Selmer: they're really willing to go for the exact replica!

Elliot

Yeah, that Tony is a real FREAK all right! (Just kidding, Tony).

I've never been able to assess if the walnut makes that much of a difference in sound, but I like the Mahogany mainly because from the back the color and grain makes it look like someone's arm in a Surreal way. In fact, Dali did a painting of Vermeer playing a guitar from the back and you can tell it also is Mahogany, although you might not find this incredibly significant...

I also wonder if steamed tops means more tension or less...all I know is when I first strung mine up it creaked so loud I just about had a heart attack.

Bones

I don't see the Manouche Moreno on that link.

Is that Manouche different from the JWC?

thanks

Elliot

Bones wrote:

I don't see the Manouche Moreno on that link.

Is that Manouche different from the JWC?

thanks

It is the Modele Jazz, they say Moreno on them. Yes, but Tony was a partner at Manouche and he evolved it into JWC . He didn't have far to go to get another 1k out of them so he wisely went for it, IMO. I'm not sure you could find a 'new' one these days because they are dealer's stock now and it has been a while.

http://www.jwc-guitars.com/indexUK.htm