Django's Epiphone

DJANGO's EPIPHONE GUITAR

Grappelli - Django first heard an electric guitar in '46 or '47; I think it was at the Hackney Empire. Somebody brought in the guitar and it made a terrible noise - in those days electric guitars didn't sound as good as they do now. But Django was so impressed because at last he could play loudly. He played with such volume that I had to ask him to turn it down as it was drowning all of us. He was like a child with a new toy. Of course, to be fair, he didn't know how to handle it. We'd heard Charlie Christian, and although he would never play like Django, if you know what I mean - the electric guitar being easier than acoustic - Charlie Christian was a master of the electric guitar, Django was born to play acoustic guitar and the richness of Django was in his chords and he could never achieve the same dynamic effect that he could from his acoustic guitar. He never succeeded to play electric and in my opinion he never was a good electric guitarist.

Fred Sharp - Babik Reinhardt presented him with the instrument, claimed that Django had played on his concert tour with Duke Ellington in 1946

In 1967, my wife Iris, Babik and I had dinner at Restaurant Lucas on Rue Des Petites Ecuries, which is now a jazz club called The New Morning. After dinner and hours of struggling through my poor French and his not speaking English at all, Babik asked, "Il est possible pour tu a apporter un cadeau, pour instance, un guitar a l'etas unis?" So he proceeded to open the boot of his car and give me Django's Epiphone.

By the way, when we got to his car, there was a parking violation ticket on it, which I took off and gave to him. He said it was an old one and he put it there himself, so as not to get another where he was parked.

We went back to London and I had friends of mine who ran an electronic representative firm pack the guitar like a piece of equipment for shipment to the United States and left it with them to be shipped. When we returned to our home in Cleveland, Ohio there was no guitar. I waited three months and finally got around to checking the small U.S. Customs office at the Cleveland Airport. They said they had it for three months with no consignee address on it??

I proved it was mine and I asked about duty. They asked where in Europe it was made.

I said it was an Epiphone and was manufactured in New York, to which they said, if it's American, there is no duty!! Anyhow, that's the long and short of it. When I had a good look at the guitar I noticed that the fingerboard was rosewood and very grooved and pitted from Django's apparently very heavy finger pressure.

If you look at other photos of Django's guitars, you'll notice the heavy wear on the fingerboard.

Also the frets were badly worn. Django's fix for worn grooved frets was to simply move the tailpiece over 1/16th of an inch, so the strings landed on an unused portion of the frets!! Right away, that sounds like a Gypsy FIX! The pick-guard was attached at the top next to the end of the fingerboard, but the other end had evidently lost it's support bracket. Django or someone had sawed a one inch thick piece of broomstick, to make a large round wooden washer, and screwed it to top of the guitar and the large end of the pick-guard to it! The neck was terribly warped, too much to even adjust with the truss rod. I didn't want to hang it on the wall, I wanted to play it, so I took the whole instrument apart, re-set the neck, planed the rosewood fingerboard, fitted new frets and two new mother of pearl square fingerboard inlays, did a cutaway on it, rebound the fingerboard , headpiece and body, fitted a second matching pickup with controls, sanded, fine sanded and re-lacquered the whole instrument. Following that, it was playable for the next few months, until the neck warped again and I put it to rest in its' case.

This sounds like a supreme act of vandalism to remove the traces of Django's apparent disregard for the Epiphone instrument and yet it was given so freely by Babik. Others claim the Django's tour manager bought him a Gibson without a cut out for that tour.

Fred Sharp on Django

The Epiphone brand was named after Epimanondas Stathopoulo, president of the company and one of the sons of the company founder, Anastasios Stathopoulo. Anastasios was a Greek immigrant and violin maker who came to America in the late 1800's. In 1923 Epi came up with a new name for his company based on a combination of his nickname and the Greek word for sound: "Epiphone." 1924 saw the release of the Epiphone Recording Banjo series. The popular Artist, Bandmaster, Concert, Deluxe, and Emperor banjo models soon followed. By 1928 Epiphone had bought out other banjo manufacturers to keep up with their own expanding business and had changed the company name to the Epiphone Banjo Company. The first production of Epiphone guitars coincided with the stock market crash of 1929, when the banjo boom also went bust. Epiphone Recording Guitars of spruce and laminated maple helped take up the slack for the declining banjo demand.

Faraday’s Law and the electric guitar
The electric guitar utilizes the concept of Faraday’s Law as well as other concepts related to magnetism. All electric guitars have a device called a pick up which is placed underneath the magnetic guitar strings. These pickups are wire coils with an average of 4,000 to 7,000 turns! When the magnetized string is plucked, it vibrates like a little magnet and changes the magnetic flux going through the coil, inducing an EMF through the coil, and producing an electric signal which can be amplified.

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.

DJANGO AND THE AMPLIFIED GUITAR

the last three tracks offer a rare glimpse into Django's experimentation with the electric guitar and bebop.

Due to the efforts of Duke Ellington in October 1946, Django made his first and only appearance in the USA, (Oct. 1946-Jan. 1947). Ellington, who first met Reinhardt in 1939, was anxious to have Django return to the States with him then, but the outbreak of war prevented this. It wasn't until seven years later that the fabulous gypsy arrived in NYC. and performed a series of concerts as a guest soloist with the Ellington Orchestra.
Django with what appears to be the Gibson L5

Not having brought his trusty Selmer guitar from Europe, Django was forced to use an American Gibson L5 amplified guitar. Recordings made during a concert in Chicago reveal Django to be quite at home with the instrument, even utilising the sustaining power which the amplified guitar possesses.

For recordings and appearances from 1947 through 1950, Django performed intermittently on the amplified guitar, opting at times to use his acoustic instrument. It wasn't until 1951 that he exclusively played his amplified instrument (the Selmer with a pickup), using this voice to express his "new" ideas and repertoire in the 1950s world of modern-jazz.

Django 'n Duke Live - Honeysuckle Rose With Django on his Amplified guitar showing that he was still developing his technique in this format but giving new direction to both his rhythm and soloing delivery. Predicting in his recording the future sounds that could be expected from amplified jazz guitar. It was probably the Epiphone Amplifier but was it the Gibson L5 or the Epiphone Guitar

Big Band Acoustic - Place de Brouckere

Grappelli
Django first heard an electric guitar in '46 or '47; I think it was at the Hackney Empire. Somebody brought in the guitar and it made a terrible noise - in those days electric guitars didn't sound as good as they do now. But Django was so impressed because at last he could play loudly. He played with such volume that I had to ask him to turn it down as it was drowning all of us. He was like a child with a new toy. Of course, to be fair, he didn't know how to handle it. We'd heard Charlie Christian, and although he would never play like Django, if you know what I mean - the electric guitar being easier than acoustic - Charlie Christian was a master of the electric guitar, Django was born to play acoustic guitar and the richness of Django was in his chords and he could never achieve the same dynamic effect that he could from his acoustic guitar. He never succeeded to play electric and in my opinion he never was a good electric guitarist.

Charlie Christian used a Gibson ES-150 guitar plugged in to a Gibson EH-150 amplifier to create history. It’s a humble rig by the standards of of today; but then today’s electric guitarists have Gibson and Christian to thank for proving what this instrument, and a great player, could do.

According to interviews in Peter Broadbent's Charlie Christian: The Seminal Electric Guitarist, Minton's manager, Teddy Hill, bought an EH-150 and a bar-pickup equipped ES-150 guitar (similar to the one from Christian's early Goodman days) to keep at the club for his use (more on this later). Check out Charlie Christian - Live Sessions At Minton's Playhouse on the Jazz Anthology label to hear why his playing and the sound of the ES-150 through an EH-150 amp continue to thrill and inspire listeners and players the world over, as they have since 1939. And while his playing surely could have transcended his equipment, the fact he used an EH-150 for a good portion of his career guarantees the model a place in the Vintage Guitar Amplifier Hall Of Fame.
Christian died in 1942 aged 25.

Listen to any of these 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.

Recognised this Levin Guitar which belonged to Fred Guy in Django's hands - Looks like the jacket and tie he wore in Oct 46 at the Aquarium NYC when posing for William P Gottlieb and the scratch plate looks identical. Duke did use a rhythm guitarist his long standing and former banjo player Fred Guy who later switched to the Gibson L5 and L7 and Acoustic Stromberg. The distinctive Headstock Name obscured by string ends is Levin and is artistically Inlaid.

Django played Selmer guitars throughout most of his recording career. Although he used very light silk-and-steel strings (probably .010 to .046), the thin, slightly arched tops on these guitars made them surprisingly loud and responsive. In the earliest days of the Quintet, Reinhardt played a 12-fret Modèle Jazz with a large D-shaped sound hole, sometimes called a grande bouche or big mouth. In 1934 Selmer redesigned the guitar, lengthening the neck to 14 frets, changing the sound hole to a smaller oval, and making some interior modifications. This is the style of guitar that Reinhardt made famous, and in 1939 Selmer renamed the Modèle Jazz the Modèle Django Reinhardt. In 1940 he took delivery of a guitar with the serial number 503. This is the guitar he was to play until his death in 1953. This guitar was post death in the Musée Instrumental de Paris but has since been removed. Selmer stopped making these guitars in 1952.
Many of the other guitarists, past and present, who play in this style have followed Reinhardt's example in their choice of instruments. Matelo, Sarane, and Baro Ferret played Selmers in the '30s and '40s. After Selmer stopped making guitars, a number of luthiers stepped in to fill the demand. Of these builders the most famous is Jacques Favino. In later years Matelo played one of his guitars, and today Favinos are almost as sought after as the original Selmers. Jacques Favino retired a number of years ago. Stochelo Rosenberg and Boulou and Elios Ferré all play Favinos, although Boulou also sometimes records with a Selmer.
Babik Reinhardt almost always plays an electric archtop, favouring a Gibson ES-175 cutaway but when he plays acoustically, he plays an Ovation Adamas.
Bireli Lagrene plays an electric archtop or sometimes a Fender Stratocaster. When he plays acoustically, he currently uses a guitar by a young luthier from Cognac named Maurice Dupont. Dupont's guitars (available in the U.S. through Paul Hostetter, 2550 Smith Grade, Santa Cruz, CA 95060) are regarded by many players of jazz Manouche to be the most accurate replicas of the old Selmers.
John Jorgenson recorded his album After You've Gone using a 1941 Selmer. He currently plays a custom-made Dupont with a large D soundhole and a 14-fret neck. Paul Mehling of the Hot Club of San Francisco also plays a Dupont and has the distinction of being the first American to order one. --Michael Simmons

The William Markham Version

The Epiphone Company, prior to their acquisition by the Chicago Musical Company in the mid 1950's crafted thousands of quality guitars. Their acoustic Emperor Deluxe Broadway and Triumph Masterbilt models, along with comparable Gibson guitars, are considered to be the best factory made archtop instruments ever made. However one of the most fascinating guitars ever built by Epiphone was not one of the Masterbilt Acoustics but a natural 1946 Zephyr (electric) owned and played by the great Gypsy Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

As a player Django represents one of the all time peaks of Jazz guitar supremacy. He was a talent that bordered on and sometimes achieved a state of pure genius. He did more than any other guitarist to create acceptance of solo virtuoso guitar and destroy the concept of the instrument as a device purely for rhythm. Players as diverse as Chet Atkins, Irving Ashby, Joe Pass, BB King, John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, Les Paul, Charlie Christian, and Wes Montgomery were influenced by him. Throughout his career Django almost exclusively used several of the French Selmer-Maccaferri guitars, easily recognized by their distinctive shape and sound. After World War II he sometimes used various American-made electric instruments which had been presented to him by makers.

It was on Django's only visit to the United States in 1946 that he acquired an Epiphone Zephyr #3442.

Duke Ellington was a fan of Django's. They had met in Paris prior to World War II. In early 1946, "The Duke" invited him to visit the United States and tour with his band as a featured performer. Django accepted his offer and arrived in New York City in the month of October. Django did not bring his Selmer-Maccaferri guitar with him from France because he thought American guitar makers would vie with each other for the honour of presenting a guitar to him. He was mistaken about this and as a result had no instrument to play on the tour.

Fortunately Django had an old friend in the city on whom he could depend to help him, Joe Sinacore was a New York studio guitarist who served in the army band during World War II and later was to record with Illinois Jacquet . While stationed in Paris he met Django. The Gypsy could not speak English well but spoke Italian in addition to French. As Joe knew Italian as well as English he became Django's unofficial interpreter and friend while he was in Paris. Django contacted Joe and told him he did not have a guitar for the Ellington concerts. Joe took him to the Epiphone factory located on West 14th Street in New York City. It was there that Django selected the natural Epiphone Zephyr #3442.

It is also possible that he acquired a large Electar amplifier at that time. According to Joe Sinacore the Epiphone Company gave the guitar to Django which is contrary to Charles Delaunay's biography of Reinhardt.
Joe Sinacore, was a great jazz guitarist. Joe had played with many notable entertainers of his time ... Patti Page, Frankie Lane and Bennie Goodman ... and he was also friendly with the greatest guitarist who ever lived, Django Reinhardt. Joe also ran a guitar store, where he taught the basics of guitar set-up.

Joe also played at the Hickory House NYC with the Dardanelle Trio - with Southern Vocalist Dardanelle on piano and vibes and occasionally Sandy Bloch or Bart Nazer on Bass

Joe's 'Ass' with Dardanelle on Piano and Bart Nazer's Bass - 1947 Gottlieb Picture from the Hickory House
Guitar straps must have been hard to find post war - reminds on of the Marquee in Oxford St.
William P Gottlieb's Golden Age of Jazz

After acquiring the Epiphone Django travelled with Duke Ellington by train to Cleveland, the first stop on the tour. (November 1946). The concert was reviewed by the Cleveland "Plain Dealer." Of Reinhardt, they said; "In the hands of this virtuoso the electric guitar acquires richer, magical qualities. His dexterity was remarkable, in intricate chords that were executed with such technical brilliance that the band musicians kept shouting "go to it Master."

"The Cleveland Press" also reviewed the show, "Duke Ellington came to Cleveland yesterday...He introduced in this country for the first time the hottest guitar player in the world."

After Cleveland the band played to enthusiastic crowds in Chicago, St Louis, Detroit, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and closed with two nights (November 23rd and 24th) in New York City at Carnegie Hall.

After the tour Django worked at "Cafe Society" before returning to France taking the Epiphone with him.

Brief Clip Of Django on the Epiphone

Brazil - Electric Django

Reinhardt never returned to the United States. He spent the remainder of his life successfully touring the continent usually with small groups similar to the legendary "Quintet of the Hot Club of France" that he formed with violinist Stephane Grappelli in 1934. During this period the rare film footage of Django playing the natural Epiphone Zephyr through a large Electar Amplifier was made.

Django's last important appearance was with Dizzy Gillespie in the Spring of 1953. The following May he died at the Hospital in Fountainbleu near his home at Samois from a stroke. He was forty three years old.

In 1967 Fred Sharp, a noted guitarist and owner of the largest collection of Django Reinhardt recordings in the United States, was invited by Charles Delaunay, Django's biographer, to come to Paris. Delaunay wanted to record Fred and Babik Reinhardt, Django's son an accomplished guitarist in his own right. During their work together Babik learned of Sharp's life long interest in his Fathers music. When Fred Sharp left France, Babik presented him with a bon voyage gift...Django's Epiphone.

As noted in the "Plain Dealer," Sunday, November 5, 1967, one of the treasures brought back from Europe by Freddie Sharp, the Cleveland heights band leader, is a six string guitar formerly owned by Django Reinhardt, the late, great, French guitarist. "I was overwhelmed when Babik Reinhardt, son of Django gave it to me as a bon voyage gift", Freddie said as he displayed the cherished present.

"This is the instrument his father played in Duke Ellington's Orchestra on his American concert tour in 1946. Django also played it at New York's old Cafe Society Uptown Club where I heard and met him." Sharp, a guitar virtuoso himself, and his singing wife Iris, flew to France to tape a new record a new record with Babik's studio Jazz band for Disques Vogue records in Paris.

It was an extremely happy merger of talents, "as well as a memorable experience", the Clevelander reported. The recording date was arranged after a long exchange of letters and tapings with Babik and Charles Delaunay, production director of Disques Vogue releases."Several mutual friends also recommended me to Delaunay for this project," Freddie said. "He was impressed too, by the fact that I own 885 sides of Django's tapes and famous recordings. It is one of the largest collections in the United States."

In Paris, Sharp met several noted musician who had been friends of Jean Baptiste ("Django") Reinhardt, the Belgian born gypsy jazz muscian who influenced guitarists throughout the world for over 30 years. "His son is one of the finest jazz guitarists on the contemporary scene," Sharp commented. "Babik and his combo sounded so great at Le Club du Jazz in Paris that I am hoping to arrange a tour of the States for them."

Freddie, who once toured in Red Norvo's and Jack Teagarden's orchestras, was asked if he plans to play Django's guitar in future shows.

"Oh no! Definitely not!" he replied. "I treasure this museum piece so much for sentimental reasons that I would not sell it for less than 50 million dollars

Photographs from the late 1930's typically show Freddie Green playing a sunburst Epiphone Emperor guitar.
During the 1940's and 1950's, Freddie seemed to play Strombergs exclusively, usually sunburst.

These large 18-19" arch-tops were revered for their volume and cutting power in an era when electrical amplification was not yet commonplace, especially in big bands.

Epiphone Emperor

Epiphone Emperor In 1935, the Epiphone Company introduced several new arch-top acoustic guitars and topped their line with the 18 3/8-inch Emperor model. This model was considered the flagship of the company's Masterbuilt line, which was redesigned and expanded to meet the increasing popularity of the guitar during this period.

The Emperor featured a carved spruce top, multi bound f-holes, raised bound tortoise pickguard, multi-bound body, carved maple back, maple sides, 7-piece maple neck, 14/20 fret bound ebony fingerboard with pearl split block inlays, adjustable ebony bridge, Frequensator tailpiece, bound peghead with pearl vine/logo inlay, and 3 per side gold tuners. The model was available in Cremona Brown Sunburst or natural finish.

The acoustic arch-top version of the Emperor was discontinued around 1957, but in subsequent years the name has been used to name several electric models, such as the Emperor II, Emperor Regent, and Joe Pass Emperor. These instruments have very little in common with acoustic arch-top version that Freddie Green used. Under the ownership of Gibson, Epiphone offered a Japanese-made Emperor acoustic re-issue in limited quantities for a short time during the mid 1990's.

A key factor that contributed to Freddie Green's sound and volume was the fact that he set his string height, or "action" very high. It is said that one could almost slide a finger between the strings and the fretboard. This set up increased the pressure of the strings on the bridge and subsequently transferred more energy into the top and body of the instrument, increasing its volume. This high action also made Freddie's instruments virtually unplayable by other guitarists.

Freddie Green strummed his four-to-the-bar chords using a standard tortoiseshell plectrum (or pick).

Freddie is said to have experimented with electric amplification and outfitted one of his Strombergs with a floating pickup for a brief period. Supposedly, members of the Basie band harassed Freddie about his new electric sound and even went so far as to remove components of his amplifier before a gig so that it wouldn't work, forcing Freddie to play acoustically. Accounts from band mates of the time suggest that these antics influenced Freddie to ultimately abandon amplification, and return to his signature acoustic delivery of sound.

Electric Guitar in hand for Paul Whiteman - again perhaps borrowed for the pose as he has no pick. Any one recognise the distinctive trapeze tailpiece on this Electric Archtop. Significantly - no Pick Guard and L7 / L12 like split parallelogram block inlays.

The quest for volume started in the 1890s when, influenced by the popularity of mandolin orchestras, guitarists began to replace their gut strings with wire.

The trapeze tailpiece was invented at the same time, to help the guitar's top support the increased tension created by steel strings. Around the time of World War I, some makers began increasing the size of their guitars; witness Martin's first "dreadnoughts." In the 1920s, the Dopyera brothers' metal-bodied National resonator guitars presented the next solution to the volume dilemma. While electric guitars first appeared following the invention of electronic recording in 1924 (Stromberg-Voisinet's Electro of 1928 is the first documented, if unsuccessful, electric), the next step in the evolution of the march toward volume was the predominance of the archtop guitar in the 1930s. Paced by companies such as Gibson and Epiphone and individual luthiers such as New York's John D'Angelico and Boston's Elmer Stromberg, everyone touted their high-volume archtop guitars, including Stromberg-Voisinet, which had become the Kay Musical Instrument Company by the early '30s, and was heavily promoting guitars such as this swell Kay Violin-Style archtop guitar from 1938.

Gibson ES-300

Electric Guitar in hand with Paul Whiteman - again perhaps borrowed for the convenient pose as Django has no pick.

It appears to be an early post-war Gibson ES-300 with original Kluson "f-hole" tailpiece.

Bound peghead with open-back tuners; dark Brazilian rosewood board with double-parallelogram inlays within frets;1 piece mahogany neck; single original P-90 pickup;

Nicely flamed maple back and birds-eye sides; original rosewood adjustable bridge and base;

Tall gold barrel knobs w/o numerals; and the unusual clef slotted nickel Kluson tailpiece replacing the normal Trapeze..

Epiphone Zephyr Electar
Orchestral Amplifier

Epiphone factory located on West 14th Street in New York City. It was there that Django selected the natural Epiphone Zephyr #3442.

It is also possible that Django acquired a large Electar amplifier at that time. According to Joe Sinacore the Epiphone Company gave the guitar to Django which is contrary to Charles Delaunay's biography of Reinhardt.

This is a late 40s Epiphone (New York) Electar Zephyr Guitar Amplifier, Serial # 8305. This beautiful, blonde maple veneer, art deco style amp sounds very good. With twin 6L5GC power tubes and it's original 12" Rola speaker, the Electar produces a smooth, clean and warm tone. Cabinet dimensions are 23" in height by 16" in width, with the depth tapering distinctively from 9 1/2" at the bottom to 8" at the top. This amp was introduced 1939; discontinued 1954.

Gibson ES-300

Electric Guitar in hand with Paul Whiteman - again perhaps borrowed for the convenient pose as Django has no pick.

Mail jazzmaster@jazzeddie.f2s.com with questions or comments about the format of this web site. Last modified: 27/02/2010

Mail jazzmaster@jazzeddie.f2s.com with questions or comments about the format of this web site.
Last modified: 27/02/2010