Les Paul's Selmer (owned by Django)

Buco

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/116165#Comment_116165

Apparently Les felt a trussrod is a must have.

billyshakes

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/116167#Comment_116167

I think he and Eddie Van Halen shared that love of tinkering with their guitars. Still, not sure I'd try mess with a guitar that was owned by Django, even then.

billyshakes

The Les Paul collection one looks like the label says Manouche and as you say isn't a Selmer.

It also looks like a N.Y. address? Perhaps a city ending in -kin or -kia. I don't know the geography of NY at all to hazard a guess. It appears to be a 9-4 area code to the phone number which would either be 914 (more likely) or 934 (didn't start until 2016). Also, it could be Manouche as you say or maybe just Manouch? Judging by the centering, there doesn't seem to be room for more than two letters after the letter "O".

So maybe something like

MANOUCH

Custom Guitar Builder

Laurel Lane Ken(?) ------

-----kin, N.Y. 9-4 - 237-54--

Something close to that? I've written to the Les Paul Foundation to see if they have a better shot of the label that might clarify things. Maybe even a hi-res copy of the website image. We'll see if they come back to me.

spatzo

I spoke years ago (in 2014) with John Monteleone about this Les Paul's Selmer.

Actually the guitar is in exposition at the Mahwah Museum 201 Franklin Turnpike, Mahwah, NJ 07430, United States

The guitar is a true Selmer nr 813 dated 27 March 1950 and sold to a man named "Delplace". We do not know exactly how Django got this Selmer. The guitar should have been then given by Django's family (Naguine) to Les Paul after Django's funeral.

Here's what Monteleone told me:

A few years ago John often worked at his neighbor's Mario Maccaferri home on a guitar project and one day on his way to the men's room he walked through Mario's (Maccaferri) drawing workshop and saw in front of him this Selmer nr. 813 placed on a shelf waiting to be repaired on behalf of Les Paul. Mario never had time to take care of it so he readily accepted, just like Les did, John's proposal to take care of that guitar directly.

The guitar was in poor condition, the fingerboard had already been changed and the position of the bridge was no longer good, the neck was also twisted and had significant cracks on the base and in addition Les had cut the harmonic table to embed a microphone in it. He said the guitar was indeed one of Django's personal Selmers. Les had gotten it from Naguine at the time of Django's funeral in gratitude for his help in organizing the funeral and for his lifelong friendship with Django.

Les therefore expressly asked John to remove the zero fret which he did not like and to change the fingerboard to put a radially curved one and he also wanted a very low string action and finally an adjustable neck. So they had the idea of ​​putting a truss rod with a small block of ebony at the 15th key to very easily adjust the neck without changing anything on the head side. The top was then repaired to eliminate the hole and reinforce and then rebuild the soundhole by removing the top and repairing the cracks in the harmonic board... it worked perfectly, he said, and that's the whole story!

Mike at the Mahwah Museum very kindly sent me a few photos to show the repairs on the guitar.

With an effort you can see the two screws at 15th fret for the neck regulation

Buco

Thanks for this @spatzo they even have a program to play his guitars, only $25 donation for 45 minutes session.

https://mahwahmuseum.org/play-a-les-paul-guitar/

billyshakes

FYI, I reached out to the Les Paul Museum about the "not" Selmer asking for a closer picture of the label. Despite my description and link to their website, their reply was an image of the Selmer label and a short comment that they didn't understand my question. I sent a few follow-up e-mails but haven't heard any response since then. Unless they reply, I'm not going to pursue any further but someone else is willing to give it a try. Maybe they'll tell us more about this mystery BG-54 guitar. Does that design on the tailpiece tell anyone anything? Also looks like an adjustable height bridge.

wim

It's probably long forgotten by them, was auctioned off in 2012, along with a bunch of other gypsy guitars https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/71/lot/27369

billyshakes

Thanks for the link, @wim. So, somewhere out there, this guitar is floating around. Too bad I wasn't around to purchase this trophy. Ha ha...seriously...~$900! I can think of better ways to spend my coin. They could have bought my Altamira AND had change left for a case of Blatz/High Life. It's the Champagne of Beers.

https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/71/lot/27216/LES-PAUL-NOVELTY-TROPHY-amp-PHOTOGRAPHS?url=%2Fauctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F71

Buco

I finally finished reading the interview with John M. about his friendship with Mario M. I was surprised to hear how Mario could care less for jazz apparently. And he didn't think himself that his internal resonator was a great success. No one is saying anything about the reasons for his departure from Selmer but I don't think he was disappointed anyway given that it doesn't sound like his heart was in it. When it came to guitars, classical was always his inspiration, both with instruments and what he liked playing and hearing.

TheGarethJones

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/116240#Comment_116240

congratulations Evelyn your grand pa and I are so happy for you Susan's cousin Morty died of an abdominal aeortic aneurism just after christMAS LOVE YOU FROM GRANDMA