Selmer Maccaferri
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The Selmer Macaferri guitar is famous for being used by Jazz virtuoso and guitar legend Django Reinhardt and the rest of the guitarists of his group, the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. It was made by the Paris-based Selmer music company in a collaboration with the Italian guitar designer Mario Maccaferri in 1931. The guitar had a unique shape: the soundhole was wider and D-shaped (gran bouche), the body had a straight cutaway, and the peghead was slotted and tapered. The original versions of the Selmer Maccaferri were remarkable because they had an internal sound chamber suspended from four points on the top. Maccaferri believed that this sound chamber allowed the guitar to produce a cleaner, warmer, louder sound, which was ideal for the noisy jazz clubs in which Reinhardt played. Although there have been many replicas produced by some guitar makers, only 280 of the genuine guitars have been made. Selmer and Maccaferri later parted ways and Selmer modified the design of the guitar, removing the sound chamber, using a small oval soundhole (petite bouche), and increasing the scale length. Most of Django's recordings were made with this later Selmer version of the guitar, although the rhythm guitarists in the Quintet of the Hot Club of France continued to use the earlier model.
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