Okay, here is most of what I collected on twelve Selmer style guitars at the recent Django in June festival in Northampton, Mass. Five of these were guitars I had built (CB) and brought to the festival.
Some notes:
My subjective rating, first column, is indeed very subjective and is based solely on what I think about the way the guitar sounds in relation to the requirements of the style: Loud, responsive, cutting, tight woody bass, never muddy. The emphasis is more on the fundamental than the harmonic. These guitars do not sound pretty, they are acoustic swing jazz instruments. Guitars rated in the 9-10 range are among the very best vintage or modern. Guitars below 5 are either common, failures or played out. Most players are very happy with a guitar that rates 6 or more, 9-10 usually induces a fair amount of jaw dropping.
The rest of the columns are pretty self explanatory. If anyone would like to see the FRCs on any of this, let me know, I have them all. JeffHigh, Trevor & I have been talking about measuring Monopole (Specific) Mobility and there is some agreement that my MM numbers generally run higher than Trevor's, so comparison to guitars other than what is listed above is not really fair.
It appears to me that the best guitars have the best mobility numbers. Other than that, it is hard for me to make conclusions. I welcome any and all interpretations. My main interest in doing this was to establish some base lines for Selmer style guitars and it seems this is a start.
Regards the guitars, the seven that are not mine are truly an interesting bunch. The modern builder #1 not a household name, but he is both a great builder and player for Holland. He could have sold this guitar five times at the festival but in the end a friend of mine bought it and so I got to measure it some. This guitar is close in sound of Django's Selmer 503 that we hear on the recordings from the early 1940s than any I've ever heard.
The 40s Mystery (my name for it) is possibly a Busato or a Joseph Dimauro, no label, but clearly from Paris in the late 40s. I have pictures of both George Brassens and Felix Leclerc playing this same model. This guitar weighs just a little over 3 lbs. and is a cannon. I recently put a new fingerboard on for the owner and delivered it to him at the festival.
Busatos are amongst the most desired gypsy guitars. The 1940s Busato Gran Model was very good, but I was not that impressed with either the 1950s Bustato or Selmer #862 (yes, a real Henri Selmer, one of the last built, 1952, rosewood neck, five braces) . Both seemed heavy, overbuilt and perhaps played out.
You might also take a look at my CB #03, last in the line. This guitar is one of my earliest builds. It was okay at the time and is probably better than a 3, but I wanted to put it at the bottom of the list because of the oddly high mobility number. It was so high that I redid the measurements, but this seemed okay. What you will notice is the particularly high deflection. That is quite so and is likely because the cedar top on this guitar is much thinner than most and this deflection is what is driving the high mobility number. Problem is, it doesn't sound like it. It just average in response, bass is strong as one would expect with the thin top, but FRCs are in the middle with all the rest. I'm perplexed. Is it possible that there is an upper limit to MM where going over gives no improvement?