Aussie maccas at the OzManouche

[P Bill]

I'm pretty sure I photographed all the Australian Maccaferris at the festival. As you can see, all very nice guitars.

It's hard to gauge how many djammers came and went over the two days. There was a core of the same 10 to 12 players and I think probably 20 plus at the max. Most of these guys had imported maccas and 2 or 3 had small body flat tops. The skill level was high enough that most of these guys should have a handmade instrument, in my opinion.

My archtop was an apple at the orange show, but it was played and passed around. My EUB got played a bit but not as many bass players came this year.

I finally heard the KALA bass uke. It was in concert Saturday night first band up. It sounds remarkably good and double bass like. Second band had a proper doghouse bass and then you could really tell the difference. Still, for something backpack portable, it was pretty good.

Mark this weekend in your calendar for next year.

[DarwinStrings]

Well done for bringing a few of the sights of the festival to our doorsteps Bill.

Jim

[J.F. Custom]

Thanks for the effort Bill, next best thing to being there.

Ewan is a class act.

Jeremy.

[Nick]

Thanks for posting Bill, sure is some Selmer porn there, seems to be a proliforation of Petite Bouche's (which "technically" are the Selmers) were there many 'D' holes at all Bill?
And yes, I'll mark it on next year's calender for sure!

[Mike Thomas]

Another vote of thanks from me Bill. I'd really like to get a close look Roland Stefen's instruments. Next time I'm in N.S.W. I shall try and arrange to see him. In the meantime, do you have a full name/contact details for Josh? Since he lives in Hobart, I'd like to give him a call.

And like Nick, I'm looking forward to next year.

[P Bill]

Your welcome fellas ,happy to do it.

I agree Jeremy, Ewan is a class act and a wonderful muso.

Nick more oval than D soundholes . I would'nt mind if you and others elaborated on the ins and outs and the finer points of these gutiars . I have a loan of the Collins book but know very little about the guitar and its history.

Mike I only introduced myself to Josh before the photo .Sorry I don't know much I'm afraid. I 'll try and find some details. If you see his guitar you'll have seen them all. I mean that in the best possible way. Stephan's workmanship is that good and consistent across all four guitars I saw.

[Mike Thomas]

Thanks Bill, I'd appreciate that.

[morgan]

I saw Ewan playing in a guitar duo called Mystery Pacific a few years ago at the Bay of Islands Jazz festival and he was fantastic. I felt like such a faker there playing gigs in the company of talented musicians like him. They were certainly full of the spirit of gypsy jazz and swing and were a pleasure to listen to, and also extremely personable to talk with. Pity the festival has no interest (money?) in bringing them back again as I'm starved for some good Manouche jazz up here lately.

I think what Nick was alluding to regarding the differences between the oval and D holes is that the original Selmer designs were made by an Italian man named Mario Maccaferri and built in conjunction with the Selmer factory in France. Mario pioneered a number of the innovations in it's construction, including borrowing the idea of the pliage (or bent top) from mandolin building, and laminating the back and sides for strength and stability. They evolved the design over the course of a number of years and varied from 4 to 6 strings, flat/slotted headstocks,variations of scale length, nylon and steel strings, D-hole and oval hole shaped soundholes etc. They settled on a few steel string models including a shorter-scale length with a D-hole (grande bouche), favoured by rhythm guitarists and a longer scale length with an oval hole (petite bouche) used by the lead players and popularised by Django. These guitars are usually are referred to as Selmer/Maccaferri guitars (or Selmacs for short these days).

Later when Maccaferri parted ways with the Selmer company they continued to manufacture a variation of the design with the oval hole (petite-bouche) and this version is probably the only one that could properly be referred to simply as a 'Selmer'.

All of this is from a hazy memory late at night here so pardon any errors, however the complete detailed history of the guitar is very well documented in a beautiful book by Francois Charles, entitled "The story of Selmer Maccaferri guitars". http://www.rfcharle.com/HTML/LivreSelmerangl.html. This the definitive work on the subject and highly recommended if you have even a passing interest in the guitars (and a bit of spare cash) My copy is currently in a room with a sleeping baby so I can't check the above facts for you right now However there are some Selmer experts on this forum (Nick, Mike, others?) who will surely correct any mistakes.

[P Bill]

Thanks Morgan

I had a look at the intro in the Collins book after your post .I should have read it first, a forest/trees situation ,the drawings and photos of the build sort of dazzeled me. It looks like a very complicated guitar. I'll build another archtop before jumping into one of these.Keep any Selmac info comming thanks.

[Dominic]

Hey Bill, thanks for the pics but what I really want to kow is...assuming that's your archtop in the first pic, is that Aust red cedar carved top. Looks great. How does it sound. I made an electric with red cedar and the body is so resonant and dark soundig I thought it would be great for a carved top.
Cheers Dom

[P Bill]

Hi Dom....I'm pretty sure it's surrian .I get it and other toonas from my mates joinery. Trying to be as objective as I can. When I heard others playing it at the weekend I thought it sounded pretty good .

I use different imported toonas on my basses because of the resonance and light weight .I put something harder on the back to take the screws and bolts. It makes a strong ,resonate and lightweight body. With a drop top and back and some binding I think it would make a nice solidbody guitar.