A closer look at Django's Selmer 503 !

Teddy Dupont

Here is the pickup that produced those lower holes

Shawn

Thanks for uploading that last picture Teddy, not only have I always wondered what pickup made those two lower holes, but the quality of that picture is simply amazing. I've never seen a clearer and more crisp image of Django, hell, you can even make out the grim and grub on his right hand.

spatzo

Hi Mario!

A few years ago (moreless 1996) I tried to find a Stimer pickup but in those years it was impossible. I asked a lot of musicians if they had one to sell but nothing went out. I made an inquiry to see who made those mikes and I was told (probably by Alain Antonietto) it was Mr. Gwen in Sartrouville that made them so I searched and found a phone number with an answering machine indicating "Stimer music, let a message" and I let one thousand messages in more than one year before I was finally called back by the son of Gwen that told me they had closed the activity. I asked if he could make two mikes for me and he accepted (only the 48 model as he only had spare parts to build this one). I bought them 1250 french francs each. I gave then the phone number to Maurice Ferret and probably he gave it to the whole manouche community. One year later I was phoned by Roseline Charle that told me ANtonietto gave her my phone number and asked me if I knew where she could find a Stimer as she had to restore Django's Selmer for the Music Museum of Paris la Vilette and she wanted to set a Stimer on the guitar and I gave the phone number to her. Gwen had then started again to produce a few pieces from time to time and he sold then the whole producing hardware/brand name to Maurice Dupont. I spoke with Charle and he said they only had made a few interventions (cleaning, registration of the guitar with new strings, etc...) and he said he didn't remembered nothing on the Metro ticket. So I am absolutely sure that the guitar was restored by Charle before it was exposed in La Vilette.

spatzo

On another hand we also know that Babik played on his father's guitar (there is also a video with him being told by Naguine how to play the chords on this guitar). I don't know exactly when the guitar was given to the museum but we also know that it was only exposed round year 2000 so probably the Museum asked Charle to restore it some time before. When I first saw the guitar in La Vilette I found it quite different in color compared to the color pictures I had seen. It seemed darker than in those photos but fifty years later the color had probably changed. In Mario's video it seemed almost the original color so maybe the lightning in the Museum gave darker tones to the color.

frater

The question that was being posed was whether Selmer 503 was actually Django's guitar because Dregni had written saying that all Django's possessions were burnt after he died including his Selmer.

I suspect gypsies burn good guitars on funerals just in Tony Gatlif's films...

Super Mario Maccaferri

!!!! Great info (and great pictures) !

I think the Museum received it in 1965. The man who was in charge the day I filmed told me the guitar did not leave the museum after it went in. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe Mrs Charle went to do minor repairs etc, directly in the museum ?

From what I've understood, the museum's policy would have led them to leave the metro ticket intact under the bridge. Oh so djangoesque


edit, yes, I also agree that Gatlif alone may have burned more nice guitars than the entire gipsy community

spatzo

Of course they didn't burnt any important Django's item for exemple in Samois Michel the son of Fernand Loisy had a Django tape recorder and tapes. The one I have heard was Babik's music (Night in Tunisia and stuff like that), he told me he had some Django tapes too that Babik always asked him about ... :shock:

Mario you can call Charle to know if/how/when they restored the guitar, I'm sure they did as I spoke with both François and Rosine about that fact. (http://www.rfcharle.com/).

Another guitar that wasn't burnt is the famous Epiphone that Babik gave to Fred Sharp some 20 years after. Other relevant things too have been carefully preserved: Django's paintings, etc...

Best

Teddy Dupont

Francois Charle says the guitar was donated to the museum by Naguine in 1964. Here is the film Spatzo mentions of Babik playing Selmer 503 to Naguine.



Here he is again with it in 1959. Notice the Stimer has been removed:-

Teddy Dupont

All the indications are that Django owned 503 from around 1940 until he died but we can be 100% certain of very few things about Django.

On both his visits to the UK after the war (1946 and 1948), people who saw his guitar close up said there was some folded paper under the bridge.

Super Mario Maccaferri

How nice it is to discuss almost invisible details with a bunch of maniacs that make you feel there are people worse than yourself

Thanks guys, again, great stuff, superb quality pictures, details, details and more details... Funny to see that after all there isn't half the interest for sherlock-holmesing Django facts and artefacts on the french forum.


Ça fait plaisir de te lire Spatzo... guette les journaux, Rosenberg Trio à Rome le 15 juin, et avec un peu de chance quelques autres dates en italie !
Ci vediamo !
(sorry for the French apparté guys, nothing rude, I assure you !)