This guitar belonged to my father who bought it used (probably at a yard sale or a flea market) around the 1950s. I have always seen it on a shelf in my parents home – my dad did not actually play the guitar, only the bagpipe ! 🙂 As children, my brother and I tried to play it sometimes but one tuner was broken.
When I started playing gypsy jazz 20 years ago I realized it was a nice gypsy guitar, and decided to restore it to a playable state: new frets, some cracks/missing parts on the maple layer of the sides, plus a very very light coat of nitro varnish.
Only recently I came across a very similar guitar that appears to be an early Busato built when the workshop was rue d’Orgemont in Paris. The “Maison du Jazz” stamp on the back on the head is seen on other Busatos sold by that shop which was located rue Victor Massé in Paris, just steps away from Django’s home rue Frochot.
I have recently installed replacement Delaruelle tuners and here it is, nice and big sound 🙂

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