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The crew that made the original Selmer guitars were brought over from the main plant where they made brass and woodwinds, and were trained to do the various jobs involved in making guitars. I doubt if they saw anything especially difficult or particular about doing this. Just a job to go to every day, where they were expected to do a good job. Which they did. The guitars were good and many of them have endured a long life of hard work. Selmer brass and winds are still among the best in the world and the artisans who make those horns could surely make guitars as well. Good hands can do many things.
I agree that luthier built guitars in this style seem to be woefully underpriced. But there are a lot of people making them for what is really a very small market. And honestly there doesn't seem to be the market for upper-end guitars like there is for D-XX and OM boutique guitars. There's a guy in Asheville https://www.dreamguitars.com/ who has a staggering inventory of high end acoustics from under $10k to way beyond that. Looking through his listings there is a wide range of body shapes and sizes, finishes, etc, from the most traditional to the most avant-garde. All of these guitars surely sound wonderful no matter what style you play, because that is the mark of a great steel-string - they just sound really good, rich and lush, no matter how you play them. And it must be true that the modern high end buyer of these guitars isn't as conservative about guitars as they were in the past.
When you think about it, $8k isn't that much for something that's great when you get it, will give you a lifetime of great service and pleasure with little trouble, will increase in value and sound as it ages. You won't get that from a motorcycle, nice e-bike, etc, that's for sure!
Anyway, here we have just two body styles and almost no deviation because so much mojo is tied up in the way the guitar looks. And the modern iteration is designed for modern styles of play (very difficult!) which is is just one of the factors that limits the market. I loved my two GJ guitars, they were terrific guitars, but when I quit playing this music I sold them because they were not good for what I am doing now.
I admire what Paul is doing - I mean, we know what works. Somebody has to figure out what else might work.
The obvious question -- what would you get for the "Selmer," that adds $10,000 to the price of ALD's other guitars?
This branding thing also relates to the "new" "Quintette du Hot Club de France."
oh thanks for that, I appreciate it.
TBH though, I'd quibble with one thing: I don't think that all these high priced guitars necessarily sound amazing. That fingerstyle market is super weird to me. Extremely expensive guitars played by people you've mostly never heard of and then sold to people who never take them out of their houses. It's super weird. I really love some of that music, I used to be really into Irish music and I met and heard Tony McManus a bunch, he is just a superlative player. But I think with a lot of those guitars, there is an "emperor has no clothes" thing going on...it's in everyone's interest to say how amazing all these guitars sound and why they are worth $15k or $30k for a new guitar. I've also played a fair amount of pretty high end $10k or more guitars from people you might have heard of. Some of them are great, some pretty skunky. Sound wise anyway. They usually look amazing, and I think that's what sells them. The sound is secondary, which to me is kinda ridiculous.
I'd really love my guitars to go to people who play them. The problem is that the people who play music a lot don't generally have a lot of money and the people who have a lot of money put their guitars in vaults. It's not really worth me destroying my health and sanity so some rich dude can put my guitar in a bank vault (not that they are breaking down my door at the moment). As much as I'd love the money, it would be hard to charge $20k for a guitar with a straight face.
But then as previously mentioned, my friend is a classical double bass player, he has had the same bass for more than 20 years, inflation adjusted it probably cost $20k back then and maybe is worth 30k now. Looks like a Selmer Mark VI is $6800 new. Guitars are cheap.
I don't know, the numbers are all weird.
If I made 7 guitars and sold them for $30k, I mean that would be great, but it seems a little ridiculous as well. Luckily I don't have to worry because it's not going to happen.
And apologies to all if I'm monopolizing the conversation. It's a very interesting subject to me for obvious reasons and other reasons.
The fingerstyle thing is especially weird because a lot of those guys play the acoustics through the worst sounding piezo pickup systems so they can get all the percussive effects. To me it’s one of those things that sounds impressive for a few seconds, and then I’m switching to listen to something else. There are exceptions for sure: Tommy Emmanuel, Laurence Juber, Pete Huttlinger, etc.
I don't like much of it. If I want to hear Beatles tunes, I'll just listen to the Beatles.
Just not my taste.
But Tony McManus is sanctified and holy.
Well that makes sense - more likely to be a limited edition if it's from ALD. 15K sounds ambitious - I know a shop which had one of the 2010 Selmers hanging round for months, finally sold for about 9-10k.
I wonder if the numbering for the new Selmer's will take into account JB's?
There are 2 of the Barault Selmers on Reverb right now for about $9500 each. One has been sitting for a year and one for 5 months.
Sounds like time to make an offer on the "stale" one.
Crying at this. Genius boomer guitar players with signature models that were around for the first piezos so are nostalgized into thinking they sound good. Crazy timeline.
or do a heist.