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On the subject of playing left-handed but upside down, Elizabeth Cotten did this ages ago:
https://youtu.be/R2DCWfBkMSI?is=_hzHEUy31t4ZcAXE
Good spot on the maple headstock, @jazzz . And yes, beautiful patina on the body, on the fret dots, on the tuners. All around cool!
*Looks like he lost the pickguard that was on that top photo. Good choice, imo.
A couple of more close-up pictures. The top looks beautiful. Aside from the picking scratches, I don't see even a hint of a crack. I'll ask for the serial number tomorrow.
And maybe more surprising than the guitar itself is he still has Selmer strings. I didn't know such a thing existed.
I never saw somebody playing fingerstyle acoustic upside-down. And she played great. Eric Gales plays upside-down but he's an electric player and using a pick.
And that D hole Selmer is an odd duck. The fretboard extension is actually positioned as it would be on a right handed guitar but the cutout is on the opposite side. ???
Thanks for the pictures, what a treasure!
That fretboard on the D-hole is probably a later replacement. Can't imagine it being delivered like that from the factory.
What a great find! The guitar is gorgeous and certainly one of the rarest variants - it's like the Strat under the bed! It looks to me like the d-hole has a scoop resonator. I do not recognize any of the musicians but you have to wonder if the violinists could be players we have recorded evidence of but few pictures - Bob Bermoser, Georges Effrosse, or maybe Andre Hodier. The do not look like primas violinists to me. Final note - the band photo looks like it was taken in the salon of some kind of luxury barge, and I don't know how common such vessels were prewar.
We were talking about this today. It would seem odd given the time period of this photo for someone to take a lefty Selmer and then go through the expense to get a new fretboard put on it when it was probably only a few years old. Surely, finding a righty Selmer would have been easier & cheaper at that time? It got me wondering if they only made those D-hole fretboards one way and put them on the guitar as is? Anyone seen original lefty Selmac D-holes chime in? It does seem a bit of a mystery guitar.
The photo must have been taken in the 1940s since 494 was build around 1940 and I assume this non-cutaway Buco showed us has a neighbouring serial, so the Mac could have been 8 years old or more at the time.
In any case, I've seen stranger modifications on vintage guitars so it would not surprise me if the fretboard was replaced at one point.
What would surprise me if it came like that from the Selmer factory, since it makes no sense at all. I don't buy it for a minute.
I think Dennis told me that the band photo is from '35. And his dad got out of Paris and France in '42. I'll confirm all this (or deny) and find the serial number hopefully soon.
The flat headstock was only introduced in the late 400 series, so the picture must have been taken in the 1940s.