Guitars
The origins
The French branch of the Selmer company started making guitars in Paris circa 1931 in collaboration with Italian classical concertist Mario Maccaferri.
The initial models manufactured had a large "D" shape sound hole. After the departure of Mario Maccaferri (1934), workers at the Selmer workshop in Boulogne-Billancourt (Paris suburb) redesigned the original model, the most noticeable
changes being a smaller, oval sound hole and a longer scale neck. It
was named "modèle Jazz", it was hip and immediatly adopted by most
famous french guitar players, notably Django Reinhardt.
Copied
and improved by french artisanal luthiers of the day, it quickly became
the "generic french guitar" and was also embraced by the Gypsy community because of Django Reinhardt's extensive use of it.
 
|
