Lefty selmers for around $1000 USD?

guitarman63mm

Hey there, folks. Been pickin' my way through bop and gypsy jazz for past few years, but I'm overdue to graduate from my SXDJG1. I think I paid around $200-300 USD for it back in '07, came with a really nice case, one that would suit a $2,000 guitar better, lol. It just doesn't quite meet my standards now that I'm actually gigging and not just playing for myself. I recently bought a Krivo pickup off here, and it's very nice; I do worry about the fragility, and consequently, the longevity, given the lack of a stress bushing in the cord, but I digress.

I often see people mention Altamira, Cigano, and Harmsworth and Willis in this price range. My research says that all of these are made overseas, though Harmsworth and Willis are supposedly made by a small luthier in korea.

My ideal, someday, is to buy a Shelley Park or other quality custom selmer guitar (I'm a finance student here at FSU...hopefully I can get a good-paying day job and play jazz by night!), but I can't quite afford that much right now.

Most of my playing is with brass musicians, so it's damn tough to make myself heard with this SX, though the Krivo does the job. That said, I would prefer to not have to use it except when actually gigging, so projection/volume matters much to me. I know that as guitarists, we seem to often get caught up in minutia (this neck only has x˚ of angle!), but I really don't want to drop a grand on a guitar that is, effectively, no different than my SX. I notice some unsettling similarities to the SX when I look at, say, one of the Cafe Americain models on ebay...

So here are the ones I'm looking at. I realize the Gitane is a D, rather than an oval. Not quite sure how much I care about either right now, I just want a quality guitar. I'll probably end up owning both in the end.
Gitane - $900 + shipping
http://shoppingcart.djangobooks.com/gui ... lefty.html

Harmsworth and Willis - $1050 + shipping
http://harmsworthandwillis.co.uk/xhtml/ovalhole.html

Altamira - $1000 + shipping
http://shoppingcart.djangobooks.com/gui ... lefty.html

Thanks for the help, guys.

guitarman63mm

Not to needlessly bump this, but for anyone else's reference:

I ended up just ordering one of the Harmsworth&Willis guitars, as no one else chimed in. List is £650, after shipping, it was £700. Bank of America hit me with a $35 fee on top of that.

I will post my thoughts after a few weeks with the guitar. As I said before, I'm coming from a $250 SX, so I sincerely hope that at $1167 pre-bank fees, I'm getting much more guitar. Mike, the owner, was very polite and gracious in my requests for various photos and such.

Matty

Good stuff sir. Fellow lefty here. Did you receive your guitar?

I wish I'd found out about this site before impulse-purchasing a lefty Café Américain guitar. I've yet to receive it, but I'll be glad to provide detailed pics and general impressions when I do.

I really wish I would've kept my money and spent it on an Altamira, which looks about a hundred times better. If the Café Américain turns out to be a dud, I may do just that.