Selmer Bouche Ronde (Roundhole) #442 from 1938, in exceptional original and preserved condition.
Here is a very rare variation of the Selmer steel-string jazz guitar, built during what is commonly referred to as the transition period – that is, the production era that took place between Mario Maccaferri’s departure in 1934 and the establishment of the definitive form of the Jazz model with fourteen frets clear of the body and a small oval rosette between 1936 and the early 1940s.
During this period, the workers operating out of the small corner of Selmer’s Mantes-la-Ville factory dedicated to guitar building gradually abandoned the concepts established by Maccaferri at the beginning of the decade: they abandoned the construction of guitars with a large D-hole and internal resonator, this element proving to be more cumbersome and problematic than anything else for any intervention requiring access to the inside of the guitars (repairing cracks or breaks, regluing of internal parts, etc.); they also cast aside all models except the steel-string Orchestra / Jazz model, while at the time of Selmer-Maccaferri there were nearly ten distinct styles which included tenor, classical or Hawaiian guitars. All of these, with rare exceptions, were not to see the light of day after 1935. As a result, there remained a whole stock of parts intended for the construction of the now repudiated models that the workers would put to good use to assemble the Jazz models which were now the most in demand on the French market – this explains the jumbled production of instruments incorporating twelve-fret necks, classical-style headstocks, D-holes, small oval or roundhole style soundholes, with or without a cutaway… we note the progressive refinement of the construction characteristics, following the requests of musicians including Django Reinhardt, leading up at the end of the 1930s to the ultimate form of the Selmer guitar with a small oval mouth and a fourteen-fret neck, which would last until the definitive suspension of Selmer guitar production around 1951.
The Bouche Ronde model presented here is very interesting in several respects: it is eminently representative of the transition period previously described, since it has a twelve-fret neck with an Orchestra-type headstock, as well as a cutaway soundboard with a round rosette (this has concentric rings alternating light and dark wood, only the central band is blue) – it can be hypothesized that this top was initially intended for a Espagnol model (whose dimensions are identical to those found on this guitar), before being adapted for playing with steel strings with parallel bracing, a tailpiece and floating bridge as well as a cutaway. Alternatively, the instrument could have been built to order for a musician wanting this particular combination of characteristics. An other point, this model, whose manufacturing date is given in Selmer’s factory ledgers as October 28, 1938, seems relatively late to be considered as truly from a transitional period. However, #442 is part of a short run of guitars with identical characteristics numbered between 440 and 450, which supports the first theory of repurposing unused parts from the defunct models of the Maccaferri era.
The instrument remains to this day in very beautiful original and preserved condition, with all its main parts: spruce top; veneered rosewood back and sides; ebony fingerboard, bridge and moustache. The guitar also has its tuners and tailpiece stamped with the Henri Selmer et Cie brand, as well as its original French polish finish.
Appraised, prepared and set up in our workshop, this extremely rare Selmer is perfectly optimised for playing.
Sold in a modern fitted hardshell case. Accompanied by its certificate of authenticity by Jérôme Casanova.
