PAUL VERNON CHESTER

Manouche Maestro

Straten & 'Dick' Knight Guitars

Selmer - Straten - Hofner Connection

Launching new guitars - the 'Symphony'  In 1946 alto saxophonist Jo Van Straten set up a guitar factory in London with the objective of manufacturing British plectrum guitars matching the quality of American models, which dominated the market.   A photograph published in Melody Maker  was taken at the launch of the Straten Symphony guitar and shows Jack Lewellyn and Ivor Mairants testing the new product.  Behind them, from left to right, are Joe Van Straten, Joe Deniz (gr), Dick Knight, Dick Sadleir and Lauderic Caton (Perhaps Billy Bell with glasses and moustache behind Sadlier).  Dick Knight was the key craftsman in the development of the new guitar.  All present were apparently “tremendously impressed” with the instrument and were unable to distinguish it, in a blind tonal test, from a top American model.

The Selmer shop, I have walked in between those columns dozens of times.  Selmer's were the only shop to my knowledge that had a uniformed security guard just inside the door....im told, this was necessary after someone came in with an empty guitar case and sloped out with a full one!  Ade Holland.

Selmers, 114-116 Charing Cross Road, London in the 1930's.
The shop-front to Selmer's building was quite grand, with tall bronze columns, framing a dazzling array of Gibson and Selmer guitars, Henri Selmer brass and woodwind instruments, and every other sort of musical item you might imagine. On entering, there were plush display cabinets lined with red crushed velvet, as far as you could see, all full of guitars, brass and woodwind instruments.

Straten Club 40 Model Guitar

Jo Van Straten was the manager of Selmer's London Charing Cross Road shop in the late 1930's/early 1940's. Immediately after World War II, Jo teamed up with a Luthier called Dick Knight, and together they started producing archtop guitars under the Straten label, using a workshop in Bridle Lane, Soho, London. 

Unfortunately, the business only lasted until 1948, at which stage Dick Knight went to work for the Selmer UK Company, which was being run by the brothers Ben and Lew Davis. Dick, under this new regime, carried on producing just one model of archtop guitar, although still under the Straten banner. This was named the "Club 40 Model".

As this model name had not been used previously by the Straten company, one can only conclude that it was Selmer and the Davis brothers who decided on that name.

The fingered tailpiece on the 'Straten Club 40' has the name "Straten Compensator" stamped into it, and it is almost identical to the "Hofner Compensator" tailpiece that Hofner used on those guitars which they exclusively supplied to the Selmer UK a few years later from around 1954 onwards. A deal of collaboration must have been present as Hofner sold Club 40-50 and 60 models in the UK

That should be no surprise, as it was actually Lew Davis himself who designed the "Compensator" tailpiece back in the late 1940's - originally for fitting to the Straten guitars and is suitably stamped with the logo..

1947 Straten Soloist Guitar Attributed to Dave Goldberg

My father was a guitarist who owned a Straten Soloist Guitar manufacture around 1947.  It is very similar to the Straten “Symphony” shown in the picture on your website but the “Soloist” has an electric pick up.   It is so unknown in Australia that every guitar shop I have presented it to  (one shop was called Rare Guitars) has never heard of Straten and all thought it was a Hofner.  My father was not only a musician but also a gifted carpenter and has kept the guitar in a very good condition through periodic refurbishment.   Hugh Burton

The Guitar is a "Straten Soloist" registration number 213 by the Straten Musical Instruments Ltd, London, England.   Purchased it from a guitarist (Peter Cowling) in 1953.   Prior to this it is thought to have been owned by Dave Goldberg.   The diagonal pickup is an over large 6 pole 6 coil design encased in a copper box, mounted to the end of the finger board and covered with a black plate.   The pickup became very noisy and about ten years ago so my father had it rewound by an enthusiast who meticulously counted turns to bring it back to its original specification.  The Tailpiece has an added a welded clip which has distorted the natural line line of the Trapeze.  Single Volume Control.

Ben Davis was demobbed from the British Army in 1919, after the First World War, and just when Dixieland and jazz was becoming popular in the UK. Being fascinated by the new sounds, Ben taught himself to play the saxophone. Over the next few years, he played with most of the big bands in the country, and finally formed his own.

Being a man of considerable drive and ambition, Ben Davis could see further potential in the music business. Following a meeting with Henri Selmer in 1928, Ben established the Selmer Company in London, on the 1st floor of 126, Charing Cross Road. Ben's initiative was a success, and the first premises were soon outgrown by 1932, when the business was moved to 114-116, Charing Cross Rd. The company's greatest period of expansion was from 1934 to the start of World War Two in 1939. By the time of the outbreak of war, Selmer was the biggest company in the UK musical instrument industry.

After the war, Ben's brother Lew Davis, who was himself a leading trombonist, joined the company, and in 1953 a further move away from the French Company occurred when Musical and Plastic Industries was formed as a public company; this being the new holding company for Selmer and an associate company called Selcol which made plastic toys and garden furniture. The gap between the two Selmer companies was widened in 1964, when the Davis brothers sold their majority shareholding to a Midlands company who's core business was the manufacture of umbrellas! This company very quickly got into difficulties, mainly due to the umbrella side of the business, and the bankers took control. They appointed a Mr John Cochrane as Chairman & MD, and it was he who steered the Selmer company very successfully during the next period between 1965 and early 1972. The Davis brothers retired to live in the South of France.

Ben Davis Band 1923 with Ben on the left.

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Last modified: 13/09/2011