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Conference napalm::guitar

Title:	GUITARnotes - Where Every Note has Emotion
Notice:	Discussion of the finer stringed instruments
Moderator:	KDX200::COOPER

Created:	Thu Aug 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	3280
Total number of notes:	61432

2799.0. "Maccaferri Guitars...basenote" by MILKWY::JACQUES (Vintage taste, reissue budget) Wed Sep 08 1993 11:30

    
    
    	Is anyone in here familiar with Maccaferri guitars? These
    guitars were designed by the same guy that designed the Selmer
    guitar played by Django Rienhardt. Maccaferri's are made of
    plastic and are available in flattop and archtop versions. They
    were introduced in the early 1950's and were short lived due to
    the plastic construction. 
    
    	These guitar play and sound surprisingly well considering the
    fact that they are plastic. The neck has a solid wooden core with
    a steel reinforcement rod. The neck also has a unique tilt mechanism
    that swings the whole neck up and down without affecting tuning
    or intonation.
    
    	I know people that like these especially for slide. There is 
    a lot of new/old stock of Maccaferri's that are available still in
    the boxes and they sell for about $100 to $150. They look pretty
    cool and I've been thinking of getting one. As you all know, I
    need more guitars :^)
    
        Any comments !!
    
    	Mark

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
2799.1		SAHQ::ROSENKRANZ	Go ask Alice....	`Wed Sep 08 1993 11:42`	11
	Maccaferri was ( I believe he recently passed away) a noted guitarist and guitar designer that designed the Maccaferri guitar with the D Shaped hole for Selmer. I believe that Django did play these. However, I think later he prefered another Selmer model (with an oval sound hole). This was not designed by Maccaferri but by some other folks at Selmer. I believe John Jorgenson (of Hellecasters fame) owns one of the Django Selmers. jim
2799.2		TECRUS::ROST	Going to hell in your heavenly arms	`Wed Sep 08 1993 11:45`	10
	Not all Maccaferris are plastic. Actually, most are wooden, including the one Django used. The plastic model from the 50s was so far ahead of its time it's ridiculous (the next attempt at a "quality" plastic guitar was the Steinberger bass in 1981). The "new old stock" ones were discovered in a warehouse around 1980 and seeing as how many are still available I guess noone found them that desirable. Brian
2799.3	CHARLIE DEE plays one from time to time...	KALI::TTESTA	Holding my breath till I turn BLUES	`Wed Sep 08 1993 12:26`	13
	My buddy (and the leader of THE CHARLIE DEE BLUES BAND) has a '53 Maccaferri (plastic) archtop...which he brings out to gigs occasionally...he likes to play acoustic slide guitar on it...with a heavy brass slide and mic'ed it's sort of a poor mans dobro, very loud, and very trebley sound...surprisingly nice to play, very light. I think he paid all of $125 a year ago, and it was still in the box! Tom T. The "other" guitarist from THE CHARLIE DEE BLUES BAND
2799.4		CHEFS::IMMSA	adrift on the sea of heartbreak	`Thu Sep 16 1993 07:26`	10
	The wooden Macs with the D soundhole actually had another box inside the body which acted as a sort of resonator. The plastic Macs (small body with f holes, cream coloured front) apparently surfaced when someone found hundreds of them in a warehouse somewhere. Of such things are legends made :-) andy