Pictured here is a Selmer guitar with a vintage Stimer setup. This is what I would consider the ultimate setup. Wish it was mine. This kind of setup is probably much harder to find. I bet the pickup and floating assembly alone are worth $500-$1000 US dollars.

The Stimer ST-48 is much like the DeArmond FHC like the one shown below.

*photos from RFCharle in Paris*

Interesting little item. Pictured is an old Stimer ST-48. In the past I have seen a few guitars with screw holes in the top and always wondered what it was for. Now I know. If the cedar tops on these guitars are arched and the bottom of the Stimer is flat then this can’t possibly work that well but this photo proves it is possible and meant to be. (Click on the photo)

The newer Dupont Stimers (not pictured) do not seem to have these screw holes. Instead, they have only one clip (not two) at the middle of the pickup that clips on the edge of the soundhole. In the case of my D hole favino this wont work because there is a bracing 1/4″ on the inside of the hole. My only options would be: 1. remove the clip from the pickup and stick it on, 2. create some kind of wood contraption to cradle the pickup, 3. get a old model Stimer ST-51 that has the guide bar or 4. use an old DeArmond.
Here is a photo of a Stimer ST-48 with modification to fit in a D hole. Is it plugged into an AER?

I am looking to buy an older Stimer, by the way, so if you have one email me.
(photos courtesy of Guitare Village)

I have been very busy lately trying to memorize “la Gitane”. I have it memorized so far through AABA and I am starting to work on the C part. I am also working on tempo consistency problems that I think I have with my rhythm playing. I’m not really studying anything new right now but I am working hard to be a better player. Djangofest is coming up and I might not post much until then so that I can practice as much as I can before the big meet.
I might arrive at Djangofest Wednesday night and try to jam with some people at the Doghouse and on Thursday during the day. Is anyone willing to jam on that day before everyone starts arriving?

I became very humbled last night when me and Rip McCollough, my soloist in my band, had a practice session playing along to a metronome. Some really amazing things came out of it. On each song that we played I discovered some weaknesses that I had with holding tempo or “double pumping” my rhythm. I discovered that on J’Attendrai, for example, that I tend to rush the song and push too hard. I also discovered that with certain tunes I actually speed up AND slow down. This is unacceptable!
I think a few more practice sessions like this will open me up to huge improvement in my rhythm. I am hoping to make more progress. I am still a relative intermediate but getting better each day.

If your having trouble reading the tablature on my site, then please check your screen resolution settings. Your browser probably needs to be at least 800 pixels wide or else the tablature will look like it has 12 lines and will not be legible. I’ll say it again, if you are having trouble viewing any of the tablature in any of my weblog entries, please review and increase your screen resolution settings. My screen is set at 1280×1024.
Also, if you cut and then paste the tablature into Microsoft Word and then set the font to “Courier” then it will also be legible.
I just finished a weekend dancing marathon. I put down the guitar for a while and I went swing dancing 5 times in 5 days, for a total of 12-15 hours of dancing. I haven’t been out dancing much in the last 2 years. I am going to start trying to get out and Lindy Hop more often. If I am not “swinging” with my guitar, then I am out “swinging” to the music. Hopefully this makes me a more well rounded player.
Also, I am almost done memorizing “la Gitane”. It would be nice if a few people could learn it before Djangofest NW so that we could play it. Its a tough one to memorize but really fun to see how each person handles the phrasing.

The total tally for Portland gypsy jazz, a city of about 1 million, to around 29 players whom I know of at this point. They are Jason, Brian, Adam, Rip, myself, Pete, John #2, Phil, Tracy, Nathan, Billy, David, Joseph, Larry W., Rick H., Victor, Brian #2, Pete #2, John #3, Hyung, Matt, Kris, Philippe, Jamie, and 5 others who I lost the names for.
All in all the gypsy jazz scene in Portland just happens to be extraordinary. I think everything here is just going to snowball and were going to end up with a large group of great players. I hope that the people of Portland end up embracing this large emergence of new music.

Here is another small idea I came across. Below I show 3 sections in a piece of tablature. The first section is a Cmaj7 arpeggio. The second is the first 3 notes of that arp. The final section shows how those first 3 notes fit into a basic Eminor arpeggio. So, basically, for any maj7 chord, you can substitute a minor scale that starts from its major 3rd.

-7—————–|-7—–|-7——-
—8—————|—8—|—8—–
—–9————-|—–9-|—–9—
——-9-10——–|——-|——-9-
————7-10—|——-|———
—————–8-|——-|———

Try deriving this for the Bmaj7 arpeggio and see what you get.