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I'd get aloha themed Django shirt in a heartbeat.
I do believe they intend to feature it in some concerts. I gave them some instructions on care of it.
It probably owes to Hawaiian climate that it stayed in such amazing shape.
Funny, maybe the wood likes it but strings do not. I used to by my Argentines in bulk here until I went to change strings and found they had all rusted to the point of being unusable. It's the salt and humidity that's a problem. My guitars however are doing fine with seasonal adjustments necessary to deal with seasonal changes in humidity.
They should have a humidity-controlled very small room; it's not such a big deal and would also be useful for storing other string instruments.
Dehumidifiers have been around forever and many just have a hose that drains to the outside. (I have one myself, which cost me less than $200.)
Some humidifiers have a "humidistat" -- set it to 50% and forget about it.
I’ve been talking with the folks at the Kealakai Center and was able to find out a little more about this amazingly well preserved Selmer.
-Paul Kerata, the original owner, is documented in a newspaper article as having been friends with Django and supposedly on occasion carried Django’s guitar for him.
-It sat in a case for most of its life which was predominantly in Portland, OR (mild NW climate certainty helped preserve it.)
-The museum plans to do some sort of recording project with it. I mentioned the Selmer 607 project which they are keen on emulating in some way.
Unfortunately the Selmer log book has a completely blank entry for #708. Judging from the other guitars in that series it was likely built in early 1948.
A Selmer guitar would have been wildly exotic in the US during the 50s. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of another example which was here so early on. It may have been the only one in the US till the 1980s when there started to be some interest in them among Django aficionados.
Ah, I thought it was hibernating in Hawaii.
But, what about the Selmer that Les Paul received from Django's family? That would've been one Selmer in the US in 50s, no? And the Selmer that Delaunay brought to Django during his US tour, are the whereabouts of that guitar still a mystery?
Also, Barney Kessel had one of Django's guitars, I think. Not sure when he got it. He told my by letter (in the late '80s) that it "had been" stolen.
not sure if the Les Paul story has ever been fully authenticated. It’s an 800 series one and there are no records of Django ever owning such a guitar. It’s serial #813 which the Selmer log attributes to “Deplace” so it appears to have had a least one other owner. Seems more likely Babik sourced that guitar elsewhere and just embellished its history a bit. It’s not clear to me what year Les actually received this guitar and when it was brought to the US.
The Delaunay guitar is similarly just a story with no hard evidence. I believed it was supposed to have been brought back to Europe. Seems like if such a guitar existed its current owner would be making this knowledge public. With so many guitars having claimed to have been played by Django, it would be incredibly ironic for one he actually played to be hidden away somewhere.