PAUL VERNON CHESTER
Manouche Maestro
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PAUL VERNON CHESTER
Manouche Maestro
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Django and the Stimer Pickup By the end of the 1920s the guitar was more popular than ever. But, because it could not compete in volume with the drums and horns of the jazz age, it was limited on the bandstand. Microphones were in wide use, and amplification was an accepted technology, particularly in entertainment. PA units with amps and speakers were used to add volume to vocal performances, phonographs, and radios. Many guitar players had stepped up to the microphone and had their playing amplified. But this setup had limitations, so guitarists looked at ways to combine microphone and amplification technologies specifically for guitar. They experimented with telephone mouthpieces, microphones, phonograph tone arms, and reverse-wired speaker coils. Alvino Rey, who became one of the first stars of electric guitar, recalled that during this period more than one person was experimenting with rudimentary electromagnetic units.
Between 1946 and 1949 Django's recordings alternated between electric guitar and acoustic guitar, but his overall musical style continued to evolve. Many of his compositions of this time - such as Diminishing Blackness or Micro - reflect the growing influence of Be-Bop. In fact the middle 8 to Moppin' the Bride could have been written by Charlie Parker himself! By 1949 the Be-Bop influence on Django's playing is obvious. Listen to any of the famous 'Rome Sessions' or the 1950 recording with Andre Ekyan - Reinhardt makes both Grappelli and saxophonist Andre Ekyan sound dated. By this time Django was going exclusively for an electric sound. Ironically it was during this period that he fitted an electric bar pickup to his Maccaferri, and was able to produce a cleaner more archtop type sound. Indeed he once referred to the electric guitars in America as "tinpots". But he wanted the electric/archtop voice power and obviously went out of his way to find it.
Example of Django with Selmer Maccaferri and Stimer Pickup PÊCHE À LA MOUCHE - note how much more fluid the solos are compared with those produced on his Epiphone - could it be that Django was not comfortable with adjusting volume and tone controls which are so readily tickled mid phrase by many modern guitarists with their little finger. Les Paul said some of his difficulties were because of Django's very stiff pick and being a down stroke picker. Yet he employed Button picks
 Today,
guitarists who play vintage Selmers—or their modern-day equivalents—again
only have one choice in magnetic pickups - the Stimer S.T. 48. Made by
France’s Maurice Dupont, the S.T. 48 is a beautiful unit that features a
built-in Volume control and a one-piece metal cover (which is nickel plated
and sports “Stimer Paris” engraved into its top). The unit features a r"
output jack, and it comes with a quality rubber-shrouded cord with r" and 1"
plugs.
Plugged into a small valve amp, the Stimer sounded both round and smooth, and it translated the unique upper-midrange colour of the guitar reasonably well. The B and E strings are significantly louder than the other four strings. As there’s no way to compensate for this balance problem—which is exacerbated by say the Argentine’s non-magnetic copper/silver formula you can replaced them with a set of flatwound D’Addario Chromes, which are a popular choice for jazz. They worked surprisingly well with the S.T. 48, and though the sound is more akin to that of a standard archtop, the string balance was definitely better.
The quest is a tone that is warmer and more
balanced, much like Django sounded like through his small tube amp on
the later recordings,
Stimer also makes a version of this pickup designed to fit the larger “D” soundhole of the “grand bouche” Selmers (and their modern equivalents), as well as the Modele S.T. 51, which is basically the same as the S.T 48, but with a separate Volume control that can be adhered anywhere you want.
 Preamp
Tube: 1 X 6AV6 & 1 X 12AU7 To promote Stimer, the Guens naturally turned to Django. In a 1952 photo
session, Django was shown in his Samois-sur-Seine cottage, beaming with joy as
he played his newly electrified Selmer. He used a similar setup performing with
American Be-bop saxmen James Moody and Don Byas and drummer Kenny Clarke - at
Paris' Club Saint-Germain. After years pounding out his acoustic jazz with a
muscular right wrist, Django must have rejoiced at the glorious ease of this
sudden volume, playing his music with a loud, overdriven sound reverberating off
the club's stone walls.
French radio engineer Yves Guen and his brother, Jean, unveiled their first guitar pickups in 1946, baptized the Stimer P46 and R46. The 46 Series Stimers may have been prototypes, but they were followed by the real deal - the 1948 ST48 pickup and six-watt Stimer M6 amplifier. These were followed by the ST51 pickup and 10-watt M10 and 12-watt M12 amps.
The Stimer amp looks great but the speaker is wrong, as you can see in the M10
on this site (seems to be a M12 with EL90's instead of the EL84's.
The EH-150 amp cabinet was covered in "Aeroplane cloth", luggage tweed, with contrasting vertical brown stripes. A black perforated aluminium grille protects the ten inch "Ultrasonic High Fidelity Reproducer" speaker. Later Gibson would often affix red stickers onto the back of speakers with the printed text "Ultrasonic Speaker". Especially during the '60s and '70s. Chassis were mounted at the bottom of cabinets. The features of the early EH-150 amp include one input for microphone and three inputs for instruments, separate volume controls for the microphone and instruments sections, a bass-tone expander switch, and an "Echo" extension speaker jack. For the microphone input stage of the early EH-150 one 6F5 tube (high mu triode) was used and one half of an 6N7 (dual high mu triode) to provide gain for the instruments input and the second half to a second gain stage for both input stages, one 6C5 tube (medium mu triode) to serve as a third gain stage and a transformer to split the phase of the amplified signal into two 6N6 output tubes (direct-coupled power triodes. One 5Z3 rectifier tube was also used.
Regarding the Epiphone, I
don't know the full extent of Django's use during the American tour and as you know there
are photos of him with a Gibson. The man was not taken with American archtops
and yearned for his beloved Selmer Maccaferri , which I believe Charles Delauney
brought to him in the states later on. (Django expected to be presented with a
guitar on arriving in the USA, which did not happen; the start of a somewhat
'broken' American dream.)
The 1950 Rome Sessions
Django Reinhardt, Andre Ekyan, Ralph Schecroun, Alf Masselier and Roger Paraboschi in Rome (1950) - anyone recognise this Guitar model with a Sound Hole and long perhaps replacement scratch plate with added DeArmond Rhythm Chief or Stimer S51 Pickup - alas Django's hand obscures what pick-up may be there and that appears to be a Volume Control and a logo or reflection - see the lead trial to the 'fretwork' case amplifier behind Django - which one is that and has the speaker been faced to the wall for recording. Come on all you Italian Djangophiles get weaving. I have enlarged this as much as I dare. If you have any better angles send em in. Is it a 40's Gibson L4 copy - not the Electric L5, L50, L75 or ES150 with similar trapeze. That scratch plate is the clue - is it a Gypsy's improvised replacement? It is a sound hole Guitar yet looks like a Hofner Framus design of the late 40's Andre Ekyan (as, cl) RAI Studios, Rome, April / May The next year there was another recording session in Rome without Grapelli and with André Ekyan, Ralph Schecroun, Alf Masselier and Roger Paraboschi, which is even considered to be worst. In the #600 of the french review "Jazz Hot" Roger Paraboschi relates anecdote about it. They were playing in Rome in a very smart night-club the 'Open Gate'. When they first arrived the proprietress asked them "Is there a guitarist in your band?". That proved they had never listened to what they were playing. Django turned to Roger Paraboschi and told him "Find out about when there is a train, I am going back to Paris". Roger had to cool him down saying "Hold on we have just arrived, don't loose your temper". Then the proprietress asked them "They showed a movie here, with an extraordinary guitarist, which was a huge success : Le Troisième Homme (The third Man) featuring the Zither not the Guitar. Do you know this tune?". They had never played it but they accepted. When the fated moment arrives, the head waiter opens the curtains behind Roger and makes a sign showing three fingers : "the Third Man". Django plays it, adding some variations and then moves to another theme in the same tempo and the head waiter comes back and says :"So, are you going to play it?". How they all laughed. From this moment they used to play it two or three times each night. It is a pity it was never recorded, with some new variations every night it had become a 'chef d'oeuvre'. During the recording session, Roger Paraboschi asked Django to record it, but Django said : "Stop, I am fed up. We played it each and every night. That's enough".
In Marseille Arthur Carbonell-Torres II was actively producing fine guitars until he ended his very full career in 1975. His father had been a guitar maker in Valencia before he opened a workshop in Marseille around 1922 where he taught his son the craft. After the second world war the son turned to the construction of concert guitars (numbered from about 300 to 580). He taught the craft to Joel Laplane who took over the workshop in 1975.
In the mid-thirties Marcel Bianchi heard Django Reinhardt and immediately began copying his style of playing which may have prompted his to move to Paris in 1937. After attracting Charles Delaunay's attention at an amateur jazz musician competition, he was offered a job as one of the rhythm guitarists with the Hot Club Quintet partly because Louis Vola thought he might bring some stability to the group. Bianchi recorded three times with the Quintet in April, 1937 and his rhythm playing with Baro Ferret elicits very different views as to its quality. It seems he used his Carbonell at these sessions because although, like the rest of the Quintet's guitarists, he was contracted to use a Selmer in public, he actually preferred the Carbonell.
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From 1948
until his d e a t h, D j a n g o Reinhardt often played his Selmer guitar with a
magnetic pickup made by the French Stimer company. Stimer was an amplifier maker
that developed a DeArmond style pickup for the Selmer guitar in 1948. This
original model was permanently attached to the guitar by screwing it into the
top (sacrilage). The model (ST-48) had a built-in volume control and eventually
was manufactured with a bracket that allowed it to be installed and removed with
ease causing no damage to the guitar top.
The
later electrified Django achieved a fantastic and unique mastery of the electric
instrument. Perhaps he, unlike Christian, was too un-idiomatic, because very few
players have tried explicitly to emulate his sound. That sound was produced by
either the Electric Epiphone or a Selmer Maccaferri equipped with a Stimer
pick-up, and a small valve amp. It is claimed, and it may be correct, that
the Stimer was a copy of the DeArmond pickup that originated in the early 1940s.
However, even after considerable experimentation few were capable of reproducing
Django’s electric sound. The sound may (also) lie in the difference between the
Stimer and the DeArmond.
You
simply slide it under the strings, and push it into place until it presses
against the end of the fretboard. Rubber pads on the bottom of the pickup
prevent scratching the guitar’s top, and the spring-clip retainer keeps the
unit snug. 
Stimer
Modèle M12 Amplifier (made by Maurice Dupont)
Stimer
M6 
Acoustic Gibson
L4 with sound hole
The
DeArmond was the original floating pickup, later copied by Kent, Sekova, and
other brands. The top model, the Model 1100 Adjustable Rhythm Chief, was often
seen on D'Angelicos, Guilds, and other top-of-the-line archtops from the period.
They were generally supplied with one or two-knob control boxes, either
hardwired with cords, screw-type mini-microphone connectors or, on later
versions, a 1/8" mini-phone jack. The two-knob versions came with a "rhythm"
switch push button (to change the tone and volume quickly when the player
switches from rhythm to lead playing).
Django
was able to create a method of jazz in four different styles. He began playing
traditional jazz during Louis Armstrong's era; became inspired by Benny Goodman
and the whole swing movement, when he created his quintet with a clarinet and
played swing; and then translated the bebop of Charlie Parker and Dizzy
Gillespie into guitar; and finally, in his later years, after hearing Miles
Davis's cool, minimalist jazz, in his final recordings you can hear Django
moving in that direction, where he played fewer notes but with more eloquence. I
don't think there are many jazz musicians, or many musicians in general, who
transcend so many different genres of a style of music.