As a big fan of Django Reinhardt's music it's been a fascinating project to research and make a similar instrument to his Maccaferri guitar and use it to play rhythm with our ceilidh band, The Pluck & Squeeze Band, which plays Welsh folk dance music.
The guitars were not readily available in music shops when I started the project. There was a lot of information on the web about Django and Maccaferri but very little on the construction details.
That situation has now changed with quality reproduction guitars, books, DVDs and construction plans on Selmer guitars by Michael Collins and R.F.Charle.
The aim of this web site is to share what I've been able to learn so far and to continue developing the site as things progress.
An
early decision was to choose which of the two models to build - the D-hole or
small oval sound-hole version?
The D-hole model with the 12 fret neck was the
final choice as it seemed more suitable for rhythm playing.
The Musical Instrument Makers Forum has proved to be invaluable for construction techniques.
Plans were bought from Roy Courtnall and later from R.F.Charle.
The wood came from Touchstone Tonewoods and Dave Dyke.
The reproduction tailpiece was made by Killy Nonis - killynonis@hotmail.co.uk
It's also been great to swap ideas with fellow enthusiasts, especially Bill Raymond from San Diego, who's been working on a similar project (Bill has his own story to tell here). We've spent years on what seems to have become our quest for the "Holy Pliage" - due to there being so much conflicting information on how these guitars were originally constructed.
So it was time to turn this -
Into this -
Sides 1 - 2, Back, Front 1 - 2, Binding, Body, Neck 1 - 2, Neck / Body, Finishing
Just finished - Maccaferri project 2, with heat-bent top (pliage).
Any correspondence on this topic
would be very welcome.
Contact Peter Davies at - pluckandsqueeze@hotmail.com
Back to the Pluck & Squeeze Band