This Page is dedicatet to the Selmer Maccaferri Guitar and all of its Copys, no matter, if the guitar is made by luthiers or in a factory!........Maccaferri designed the original guitars and oversaw their manufacture , but his involvement with Selmer ended after 18 months. Over the next few years, the design evolved without his input and, by 1936, the definitive version of the Selmer guitar had appeared. These later guitars have a narrow oval soundhole (the "petite bouche," or "little mouth"), revised internal bracing and a longer scale length of 670mm. The vast bulk of guitars produced after the Maccaferri period were sold in Selmer's native France; these later guitars are always referred to as "Selmers"While Maccaferri may no longer have been around (and his cherished resonator had been abandoned), the later guitars retain many unusual characteristics of his original innovative design, including the world's first sealed oil-bath machine heads and a top that is bent, mandolin-style, behind the floating bridge - something that contributes to the guitar's remarkable volume when played. -----------------------------------Use---------------------- ----------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 du Hot Club de France during its classic period in the late 1930s, and it remains the pattern for bands that emulate them.) ---------------------------------------------------Today, the Selmer guitar is almost completely associated with Django Reinhardt and the "gypsy jazz" school of his followers. From the 1930s through to the 1950s, however, Selmers were used by all types of performer in France and (in the early days) in the UK. The first Selmers sold to the UK market were used in the standard dance band context and were associated with performers such as Len Figgis and Al Bowlly. In France, the Selmer was the top professional guitar for many years and can be heard in everything from musette to the backing of chansonniers. Leading players ranged from Henri Crolla to Sacha Distel. More recently, the style of guitar (albeit a modification developed by Favino) has been associated with Enrico Macias .-------------------------------Copies, Replicas and Similar Guitars ----------------------------------------Selmer did not make large numbers of guitars (fewer than 1,000 were ever built), and the company stopped production altogether by 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 Selmer design: Busato, Di Mauro, Favino and Patenotte are examples. More recently othe r luthiers and small shops have offered either faithful copies or interpretations and extensions of Selmer designs, including Maurice Dupont and Gallato 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, Geronimo Mateos in Madrid, Spain and Risto Ivanovski of Macedonia.---------------------- -----------------------------1932 tat sich Selmer mit dem italienischen Gitarristen und Gitarrenbauer Mario Maccaferri zusammen, um eine Folkgitarre zu fertigen, die auf einer unkonventionellen Konstruktion des Italieners beruhte. Maccaferris Partnerschaft mit Selmer endete bereits 1934, doch Selmer baute bis 1952 mehrere Modelle dieser Gitarre. Es handelt es sich um das bekannte Django Reinhardt-Modell.Heute wird dieses Instrument oft vollständig mit Django Reinhardt und dem Sinti Swing assoziiert, dabei geriet in Vergessenheit, dass Maccaferri bei der Entwicklung seines Instrumentes nicht nur eine Zielgruppe ansprechen wollte. Er kannte Django Reinhardt nicht. Eine solche Gitarre liegt sehr gut ausbalanciert am Körper und in den Händen des Musikers, ein Cutaway (Ausschnitt im Korpus zur besseren Erreichbarkeit der hohen Töne) wurde sofort Bestandteil der Konstruktion. Durch eine besondere Konstruktion des Klangkörpers ist die Gitarre sehr laut, daher erwies sie sich für den Jazz als ideal. Je nach Schallloch unterscheidet man zwischen der D-Hole, die in erster Linie von Rhythmusgitarristen verwendet wird, und der Oval-Hole, die von Rhythmus- sowie Leadgitarristen eingesetzt werden kann. Später kamen auch Typen mit nierenförmigen Schallloch dazu. Ihre Klangcharakteristik entwickelt die Selmer am besten mit silberumsponnenen Kupfer/Stahlsaiten, die der Musiker sehr kraftvoll mit einem Plektrum anschlägt. Dieses kann mehrere mm dick sein, und z.B. aus Knochen, Schildpatt, Holz, verschiedenen Halbedelsteinen und durchaus auch aus Gold bestehen.Eine echte Selmer Maccaferri Gitarre in gutem Zustand ist heute sehr wertvoll. Verschiedene Nachbauten werden in vielen Ländern individuell von Gitarrenbaumeistern gefertigt. Bekannte Namen sind Dupont, Favino, Dunn und Hahl. Auch die internationalen Konzerne haben die Selmer Gitarre wieder entdeckt, zu erwähnen wäre Saga Gitane, Modelle von Klira, Johnson, Kirkland und vielen Anderen.
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