1941 Selmer #520

MichaelHorowitz

A rare 500 series Selmer from the early 40s!

sockeye

Sounds fantastic and looks a million times better than it did before Jérôme Casanova restored it! He did an amazing job...

HotTinRoof

My god, if this instrument could talk. Imagine where its been! :shock:
How does it "feel" Michael? Compared to todays instruments.

What was the asking price?

MichaelHorowitz

This guitar certainly has lots of "mojo" and character....new instruments just don't compare. Probably the closest would be a Dupont VRB or one of Bob Holo's Selmer copies. But you just can't dial in the all the complexity and maturity these old guitars get with age. Using aged woods helps, but it's still not the same.

With that said, the really nice stuff has it's own advantages...a sort modern balance and smoothness which is nice and also great playability.

This one is not super loud, but it's outstanding feature is the tone. The 4 brace design really makes a big difference...this guitar sounds more like Django's guitar than any Gypsy guitar I've ever played. When you play along with the records it's just spooky how close it is!

It was listed at $35K.

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HotTinRoof

Appreciate it Michael, thank you for description. Hope to see this instrument in person some day.

Michael Bauer

I've played this guitar as well, and actually had it for a week, but the owner decided he couldn't bear selling it at the time, and called off the deal.

Tonally 520 is really lovely! I own Selmer 862 and was able to play them head-to-head day after day. On the bottom two strings, 520 has it all over 862. It is warmer and lusher (more lush?). 862 had pretty good bottom end, but that missing brace in 520 gives it more tonal breadth on the low end; it has a meatier tone down low. By the time you get to the middle two strings, 520 and 862 are pretty even. They sound different, but a person could like one as well as the other. 862 is a much louder guitar, and that starts to show in the mids. 520 is warmer and seductive; 862 is brighter and a bit more brash. On the high two strings, I thought 862 just took over in both volume and tone. Again, 862 is a brighter sounding guitar, although it is not overly bright. Very late Selmers that I have seen have a much more pronounced pliage than the earlier ones, and I think that adds volume and probably brightness.

Both guitars record really well and sound richer recorded than they do in person, for some reason. 520, in my opinion, would be the perfect guitar for Unaccompanied Django tunes because it has such a great lower register. It has a nice balance between highs and lows, and a really cool mojo, as Michael said. It would also be great amplified and in a recording studio. What is isn't is a campfire monster that will cut through everything and everyone. It would be much better in a setting with 2-3 other guitars than a Django in June monster jam. 520 is a very unique sounding guitar. I have never heard another GJ guitar that sounds quite like it. What it lacks in power it atones for in balance. I think the key is the missing 4th brace and the solid mahogany body. A p[layer who can exploit 520's strengths would really have something!

dennis

i'm generally not a fan of selmers.. or rather i dont really care about vintage guitars (uh oh!!) but the best selmer i ever tried was the 504.... it's a shame that it isn't a player who owns it.... from what i understand the fellow (an American) traveled to Holland, didn't bother opening the case (or something odd to that effecT, I forget what Stochelo told me but the buyer didn't even try it out) and just took it like that ...

frater

The deserved payback for not having sold it to Clapton. ..

MichaelHorowitz

dennis wrote:

i'm generally not a fan of selmers.. or rather i dont really care about vintage guitars (uh oh!!) but the best selmer i ever tried was the 504....

You actually played this Selmer 520 when you were here....you said you liked it a lot!

noodlenot

hmmmm.... selmer....

Bob Holo

I'm going to think positive thoughts - if for no other reason than to make myself feel better about Stochelo's guitar disappearing. Perhaps the buyer was just too freaked out about playing in front of Stochelo to try it there. It's unusual for a guitar like #504 to be an artist's main rig because gigging is tough on guitars. But what a cool thing that Stochelo did it all those years. I love the old recordings, but man would I also love to hear Django on #503 as recorded on a pair of Neumanns direct-to-hard-drive to know what his sound really was. But Stochelo on #504 is a truly wonderful thing... glad we had it for so long.

But I digress... 520 is a neat guitar - mellow - toneful - not a campfire shredder by any means, but a brilliant ballad guitar. Well, it's that classic early Selmer thing. Selmers evolved throughout their production. But that old mellow tone... it's neat... I am thankful to its owner and Michael for the time I spent with it.