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Yes, it’s generally easier than a Gypsy guitar as the action is a lot lower and the scale length is much shorter. However, I don’t want it too easy as I’m used to playing strongly with both hands which is required for good acoustic playing and don’t want to totally change how I’m playing when on the archtop. So despite the low action, there’s still a fair amount of tension so I can dig in without the notes fretting out.
The moral of the story is that putting a magnetic pickup on a Gypsy guitar is a big compromise. All the things that make magnetic pickups sound good (i.e. heavy nickel strings, low action, perfect string balance, guitar body acoustically muted to avoid feedback, etc) are not present on a Gypsy guitar which is setup for good acoustic sound (I.e. high action, light copper strings, super resonant body, etc.) The acoustic setup really works against you when using a mag pickup as the tone ends up being thinner, super twangy, and the string balance is off. With that said Django and plenty of great artists have made great music with the Selmer/Stimer setup and it has a charm all of its own so still a totally valid artistic choice. Once you add a great tube amp to the equation a lot of these other issues tend to disappear.
The same exact thing happens when you take a great acoustic archtop setup specifically for acoustic playing (I.e. bronze strings, high action, etc.) If you the stick a DeArmond on it you get a really twangy, thin tone and the string balance is off. Again, has a cool aesthetic all its own but not as easy to work with as an archtop setup just for electric playing.
BTW, that recording was done on an iPhone and the Ibanez is plugged directly into the house PA with no EQ. About as primitive as it gets but works. I like simple and easy for gigs….
The same exact thing happens when you take a great acoustic archtop setup specifically for acoustic playing (I.e. bronze strings, high action, etc.) If you the stick a DeArmond on it you get a really twangy, thin tone and the string balance is off.
This is largely why I used silver plated strings from La Bella on my Epiphone Triumph Regent with the 1100 floating pickup - bronze sounds pretty bad through any Rhythm Chief, imo.
I don't have much experience with the 1000 but in my experience, the 1100 is almost like a mic in how it reacts. I totally get why a lot of players prefer humbuckers/floating humbuckers, it's much more difficult to mess up your tone (and indeed, I love humbuckers too depending on application).
Very much agree with Michael that magnetic pickups on Selmer style guitars tend to work best with tube amps or solid state amps/pedals emulating a tube amp.
I play a lot of electric guitar but don't consider it a substitute for Selmer playing. As Wim said, it just doesn't really work that way. The physical experience of playing a Selmer style guitar with rest strokes is pretty unique. It always takes me a bit of time to get back in the swing of things if I take time away in favor of playing other guitars even if I'm playing, broadly speaking, the same material on both types of guitars.
You can see some of the top players change their picking hand position when they play electrics or archtop. But I imagine it would work to some degree. When you watch old videos with Joe Pass when he still used a pick, he has slightly broken wrist and seems to be doing a rest stroke. He played lead in a hot club band in his teens so probably that's where it came from.
Yes, Joe was a rest stroke player as was everyone from that generation and earlier.
rest strokes was the predominant technique used on all plectrum instruments (guitar, mandolin, plectrums banjo, tres, oud, etc.) The introduction of the electric guitar changed all that, but you see it was still retained among African American gospel and jazz guitarist as evidenced by George Benson, Wes Montgomery (rest strokes with thumb,) and Dan Wilson
I wonder whether the light-gauge preference on electrics is stronger among players who came up playing rock on Strats and Teles. When I hand my Eastman strung with BeBop 113s (the lightest set I use on an archtop) to the guitarist in our local jazz group, he remarks on how heavy they are. But then, his usual guitar is a Guild X-170, and from his tone I'd say it's strung pretty light. He's serious about jazz, but since he's almost 20 years younger than me, I suspect his earliest playing was rock.
(FWIW, the BeBops sound pretty fat through the DeArmond-style single-coils on my other archtops.)
Regarding a cheap electric for practice: Fender makes a handful of Squire Baritone Telecasters with a 27" scale length. I've sometimes wondered if these, tuned to standard pitch with maybe 10s, would offer a good tension and some basic level of feel facsimile to a Selmer. They are cheap and would allow you to play very quietly unplugged.
My issue with teles for Gypsy picking is the bridge geometry. The strings are too close to the body. It’s not as quiet as a solid body but I have a gretsch archtop and the geometry is more similar to a Selmer. I can pick that guitar up and play it without much adjustment from the Selmer. If I pick up a strat or tele I feel totally lost for a while until I adjust.
That was my thinking when I thought Paul might have a product with Tele-Sel hybrid. I didn't know you can get a Squire baritone, that's pretty cool.
I like the baritone idea - I see Ibanez does a semi-hollow baritone which might get closer on the bridge geometry as well. 🤔 I guess there's two different questions going on here - 'What electric sounds cool in GJ' and 'What electric can someone do 50% of their GJ practice on without throwing off their technique' which may not have the same answer