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Hi Ian, Argentine Strings, 11-46 with a .23 wound third and 10-45 with a .22 wound third. info from interview back in 2004---HM: Thank you. Well, the Favino guitar I have was a guitar made in France. It’s a French maker but as the name probably suggests...Jean Pierre I think was the father and his son still makes guitars but has now moved to the south of France where he makes them. And I think their background is Italian as their name would suggest. The Favino guitars of the type I was using were made as a copy, but not an identical copy, of a Selma—a guitar of the star which was used by Django Reinhardt. The oval hole. You’ve probably seen the photographs with the small oval sound hole in it. Well, the Favino is based on that, but the Favino has a slightly larger body. It’s slightly wider and it’s got a nicer neck. I have a 1949 Selma oval hole and the necks are almost square in section. You know, they’re very chunky necks where the Favino has got more of a c-shaped neck in section, so it’s probably an easier neck to cope with. And apart from that, the general look of it...if you looked at the Favino that I have, it’s a black one incidentally, at first glance you might think, ‘Oh, that looks like a Selmer’, the ones that Django Reinhardt used ‘cause the headstock and everything’s pretty much the same. It’s just got a slightly larger body and it’s a very nice guitar. Interesting tone. Obviously a little more difficult to play because of the longer scale. However; the Gypsies and the way these guitars were designed always use lighter strings. They either use like an 11 to 46 I think, with about a 23 wound third or a 10 to 45 with a 22 wound third. And the strings that they use are usually Argentine strings, which are designed for these guitars. They’re low tension strings. So in fact, with this lower gauge string, low tension string, you can bend around reasonably freely on the guitar, but because of the extra scale they don’t feel ridiculously sloppy or anything like that. They still got a certain tone to them and a certain feel to the strings. They don’t feel too light. Not at all. But they’re interesting guitars to play. When you first play them you think, ‘my goodness.’ I’ve only had the Selmer about a year but the Favino as you know, I’ve had longer. I use it on that album. The actions are incredibly high. Seriously, deadly. And I had to have the guitars re-fretted and the bridge lowered really. They’re solid wooden bridges. It’s just way too high. Some of the Gypsy players like actions very high. A sign of their masculinity Robert. (laughter) Whereas others, I found out do not. I think that’s probably dying out now. Some of the better players seem to have more manageable actions. The action on my Selmer is not as good as the action on the Favino. The Selmer is still harder to play. The strings are a little bit higher. I can’t get them any lower but they sound different. The two guitars, they both sound Gypsy but they’ve got different voices. They’re both within the Gypsy ballpark, but definitely different voices. The Selmer is quite loud and cutting. When you first play it, it sounds quite thin. But it’s a strange instrument. When someone else plays it in front of you it sounds different. The sound that comes out of it sounds different to when you’re playing it. It’s the way, I think, the small oval hole seems to throw the sound very much forward and you don’t hear as much from it as you do from a normal guitar with a bigger sound hole. But they do have a different sound. I do enjoy playing them. I very much got into Django Reinhardt again, who I was very fond of in my teens as a player and I’m very much into that ‘Hot Club’ stuff and also some of the modern Gypsy players. I’m trying to build myself a little repertoire of Gypsy jazz music and learn to play it.
R
