1974 Jacques Favino 14 Fret Oval Hole #352

MichaelHorowitz

Michael Bauer wrote:

I like Busatos, but to my ear they are tonally the least interesting of the GJ triumverate. Bell-like, clear, but without alot of complexity (I can hear Michael's keyboard clicking into action in rebuttal!)

click, click...ha ha

I haven't been lucky enought to play a really great Grand Modele,

No, I don't think you've gotten your hands on a really good Grand. It may change your mind!

And most people miss that because they play d-holes without a resonator, which, unless you are lucky enough to have a good one, sound like rooms with no furniture in them.

I like that, nice analogy!

That boomyness isn't present in a Sel-Mac with a resonator at all. In fact, the small sound hole on the ovals was a way to get close to the sound of the Sel-Mac without adding a resonator.

Bob Holo said exactly the same thing....real Maccaeferri's aren't really D holes at all because the resonator has this small ovalish hole and that's what matters from an acousitc point of view. Take out the resonator and as you said, it's like a room with no furniture! Not that all D holes are bad, as obviously some lutheirs like Holo, Dupont, Favino etc have found ways to make the D holes sound not so hollow and empty. But there are a lot of bad ones out there....

If you like a clean, clear, loud sound, a Busato is probably your thing. If you like a more campfire sound, a Favino or even a di Mauro are great/ If you like alot of complexity in your sound, a Selmer has it.

Yes, I'd agree with that assessment.

We can talk Favinos and Busatos all day, but in the end the sound and guitar most copied (by far) is the Selmer. There must be a reason for that, don't you think?

Yes, his name is Django Reinhardt!

Michael Bauer

LOL! Yeah, he probabvly had a little to do with it. But I'll bet that Selmer sound had a little to do with why it was always his main axe.

klaatu

Michael Bauer wrote:

The Castelluccia that Michael just had was a steal! A Joseph di Mauro (the elder) can be a great guitar for a comparatively low price.

Yes, and that Castellucia is now MINE, I tell you, MINE!!! BWA-HA-HA-HAAAAA!!!!

... and it just goes to show you, as Michael B says, you don't have to be able to mint money to own a fine vintage instrument. I had Favino #369 for a brief time - an instrument very similar to #352 - before realizing that I really can't afford to have that much money tied up in a guitar. At least not yet. Then again, only eighteen months ago, spending $3500 and up for a GJ guitar seemed out of the question.

It is significant that Joscho Stephan selected Michael's Di Mauro as his instrument at this year's Django in June. Check out some of the videos on Youtube. That thing simply exploded when he played it. He had his choice of many fine instruments from Michael's amazing collection and picked the least costly one.

scot

Wow - this kind of thread just goes to show how people can have radically different perceptions of exactly the same thing! Of all the ways I could describe the Favino guitars that I have played, "campfire" would be at the far bottom of my list. I would normally describe the Favino tone as the most sophisticated of all the Selmer style guitar - the tone I most associate with Favino is Matelot Ferret's tone on "Tziganskaia" which is about as far from "campfire" as you can get. The Favino guitar also seems to me to be the one most responsive to a players own attack. My guitar can be made to "honk" if you want to play it that way (I don't like that sound), but there is no honk at all when I play it. I play it as far away from the bridge as I can and it has an airy and ringy tone. But that probably comes for years of trying to find a bit of Matelot's tone - he played away from the bridge, and I used that as my starting point.

I played that 14-fret D-hole a lot when it first arrived in the USA and it's really an incredible guitar. Great 80s Favino sound and that guitar is "loose". Someone will be very happy with that one.

klaatu

Michael Bauer wrote:

I have played nine Busatos ranging from the 30's through the 50's. Exactly two of them were really good, and I now own them both.

Michael, that big ugly 50s D hole of yours is more than really good, it is totally awesome. Of all the many guitars I have had the privilege to try out at Django in June, that one is still my favorite, my soulmate. Was it Rom or Kruno who nicknamed it "The Beast?"

I can hear it calling me still ... "Benny, Benny, come play me! Beat me, flog me, abuse me ..."

Michael Bauer

I think it was Rom, Benny. Bob Holo told me that Rom told him all about it and referred to it as "The Beast". To me, it will always be the "Ugly Duckling". I have attached a few pics...cover your eyes! It's not pretty.

Scott, I read your comments and agree at least that Favino's aren't as campfire sounding as di Mauros. I was painting with a pretty wide brush, I suppose, trying to state a general outline of sounds. But so many gypsy players used Favinos that it's easy for me to think of them as the pinaacle of the campfire sound. Where would you put Favinos? They seem to have a broader variety of sounds, but maybe that's because we come across more of them than Selmers or Busatos. To me, a desirable Jacques Favino has that classic "honk". That's what I love about them, and that's the sound I wanted. But it seems there are plenty of Favinos out there that don't have as much of that sound. I'm very interested in your thoughts, as always.

klaatu

Michael Bauer wrote:

I think it was Rom, Benny. Bob Holo told me that Rom told him all about it and referred to it as "The Beast". To me, it will always be the "Ugly Duckling". I have attached a few pics...cover your eyes! It's not pretty.

Michael, I actually have those photos (taken from Jacques' web site) on my computer and look at them from time to time. I think you know how much I love that "Beast." As far as Ugly Duckling, well, I describe it the same way, as you know, but it's in the sense that it is, as my sister said of Anthony Quinn, so ugly that it's beautiful. And the sound .... Oh, my!

MichaelHorowitz

Ahhh, The Beast! Looks so wrong but sounds so right!

BluesBop Harry

Hey Michael Bauer!
I remember playing your beast at Jacques' about 3 years ago...
I don't think it's that ugly... maybe it's just that strange pickguard? Other than that It would look like a regular D-hole just a little "hornier" (I'm talking about the cutaway resembling a rhino's horn)
The "Horny Beast"

scot

IMO, Favino is a very different guitar compared to the other two, though I confess to very limited experience with Busatos. I got to hold Django's old one but it wasn't set up to play Favino has always been an artisan guitar, where Selmer and Busato (as far as I know) were made in small factories, like Martin but even smaller. This isn't a criticism. In many ways, the small factory is the best place to build many types of guitars. But Favino received daily feedback on his guitars from the best players in Paris and he did strive to give them the guitars they wanted, which wasn't necessarily the Selmer sound or guitar. And he was getting feedback from a totally different kind of guitar player than we have in the gypsy jazz world today. Favino pere's best customers were professional big-city guitar players who were called on to play many different types of music and needed a durable and responsive guitar to accommodate that need. His guitars were constantly being developed and that is how we wind up with the superb guitar J-P Favino makes today - a guitar with decades of refinement that really responds to the individual's own style, with the sound and craftsmanship modern players expect. Now every guitar player likes what he likes, and for me the guitars made by J-P just after his father retired are the ones I like best. I find the sound to be sophisticated and traditional at once and these guitars work equally well for chords or solo. And Mike, it's not exactly that I don't like the "honk", just that for what I play I don't use that sound. My playing is mostly waltzes and music like Francis Moerman played. Your Busato is really a beauty, I'm going to make every effort to make to DiJ next year to see it.

It's funny, though - of all the early generation guitarists I talked to in Paris, without exception, the guitars they remembered and wanted to talk about were the Selmers that they'd owned over the years. Two different guitarists told me about the same pair of Selmers that had been stolen from a cafe in 1965 or '66. These guitars were said to have such extraordinary sound, both these men agreed that they'd recognize either of them by their sound in an instant, and neither of them had ever seen or heard either guitar again. Like the black Carbonell - it also was stolen and never seen again. I love my Favino, but there really is some special mojo in a Selmer.