Selmer-Maccaferri Guitar

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The Selmer-Maccaferri Guitar is an unusual acoustic guitar best known as the favored instrument of Django Reinhardt. Early models have a large, D-shaped soundhole (the "grande bouche," or "big mouth"), which was shaped specifically to accommodate the internal resonator invented by luthier Mario Maccaferri. The scale and fretting of the guitar is very similar to contemporary Gibson and Martin guitars, with the wide fretboard expected on a classical guitar. Later models, produced by Selmer, have a tall oval soundhole instead (the "petite bouche," or "little mouth") and a longer scale length.

The resonator was not a successful innovation, and very few remaining instruments retain the resonator. It was prone to buzzing and rattling and made repairs difficult; most were removed. However, some modern builders of Selmer-style instruments (notably Canadian luthier Michael Dunn) have resurrected the feature.

Before the advent of amplification, Selmers had the same kind of appeal for European players that the archtop guitar did in America: it was loud enough to be heard over the other instruments in a band. The "petite bouche" model has an especially loud and cutting voice, and even today it remains the design preferred by lead players in Django-style bands, while the accompanying rhythm players often use D-hole instruments. (This was the lineup in Django's Quintette of the Hot Club of France during its classic period in the late 1930s, and it remains the pattern for bands that emulate them.)

Selmer did not make large numbers of guitars, and the company stopped production altogether in 1952, so original Selmers command high prices. Before the current rise in interest in Django and his guitars, other European builders were producing instruments emulating the Maccaferri-Selmer designs: Busato, Di Mauro, Favino, Patenotte. More recently other luthiers and small shops have offered either faithful copies or interpretations and extensions of Selmer designs: Maurice Dupont in France; Robert Aylward, David Hodson, and John LeVoi in the United Kingdom; Michael Collins, Michael Dunn, and Shelley Park in Canada; Dell'Arte Guitars in the United States; Leo Eimers, Gerrit van Bergeijk in the Netherlands and Risto Ivanovski of Macedonia.

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