Manouché guitar MJ Elite strange serial number

STAMATIUS

Hello all at Django books thank you for my inclusion into your esteemed forum.

Although i have seen a few posts on Manouché guitars every one is a little different and doesn't answe my queries. So, can anyone tell me anything more about this guitar specifically? as you can see the Manouché label has been signed i think by John? or Andy? Vickers the serial number is 00 and it has M J ELITE...there is no headstock decal

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From my initial inspection the guitar doesn't seem to have a truss rod, can anyone confirm that these models were "trussrodless" they must have some support rod in the neck? at the moment its not playable above the 10th fret as the fingerboard on the body has kicked up (still firmly attached) causing buzzes across all the strings and the remaining upper frets. A neck reset would only make it worse so I'm thinking of taking the upper frets off planing down the fingerboard at the upper end to create some "fall off" and re-fretting...any suggestions?

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If I have posted this in the wrong section I apologise

Thanks in advance

Regards Johnnie from Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

lucky

The signature will be John Vickers, although he wasn't the luthier - Vintage Strings was a guitar shop in Cheltenham. I think they imported the guitars from Korea, they had several luthiers working for them, one of them was Jeongwoo Cho, who is now a very respected luthier who makes guitars under the brand JWC Guitars. I've seen these Vintage Strings guitars sold secondhand as JWC before, which is misleading. I've played a couple of them over the years and have to say they're not a patch on the guitars JWC produce now.

Depending on where you are in Wales, I would consult either Alex Bishop in Bristol or Jerome Duffell (Cardigan), both are first rate luthiers with lots of experience with Selmer-style guitars. Good luck!

STAMATIUS

Thanks for the reply much appreciated any thoughts on what the MJ Elite represents and the 00 serial number...thanks in advance Regards Johnnie

Buco

There was discussion about these guitars on the forum in past. But with such a generic name, at least from today's perspective, it's hard to find those discussions. My recollection is that in the beginning they were nice guitars and later on the quality, at least where the sound and tone is concerned, dropped.

It's not uncommon for these guitars to be without a trussrod. The fretboard hump is a separate issue. By now I'd figure the wood is stable where it's at, so if you have the skills or can take it in to get work done, then planing the fretboard is best. After that it should stay happy. It looks nice.