Here is a rare and desirable 1940’s Patenotte Gypsy jazz grand bouche (big mouth) guitar in very good overall condition.
She features a solid maple body and neck with a solid spruce top and an ebony fret-board! A very playable grand old guitar! She has seen decades of playing and overall nice vintage wear that gives her a beautiful weathered look.
Her frets are large and tall and have plenty of room if you wish to redress them. There is some fret wear and some fret-board wear, see photos. Action is very acceptable for this type of guitar and she sounds great. Nice loud crisp sound.
There are 2 hard to notice hairlines on her top beneath the strings, see photo. There is some top wear near the fret board from strumming that I touched up with a little clear brush on lacquer.
When I bought her she was missing one tuner button. I was unable to find an exact replacement and a good set of original 1940’s Delaruella tuners are nearly impossible to find so I custom fit a new aftermarket set.
Now when I say “custom fit” I fit the tuners to the peg head not the other way around as every type of replacement tuners made for these guitars, even the $500. ones do not fit exactly. To use after market replacements the peg head holes need to be reamed out a bit.
I spoke to one of the most respected dealers and luthiers who has specialized in these guitars for several decades and he told me that even he reams out the peg holes to fit replacement tuners. So if one ever wished to re-install an original set of tuners they would not fit properly!
I managed to find a set of new strip tuners with pegs that fit exactly, but the spacing between than was off. So, I cut the strips into 3 parts, scaloped the edges and made sure that the tiny holes I drilled with a pin drill for the tiny screws would all be underneath the original tuner strips. Should a future owner ever wish to replace these with original 1940.s Delaruella tuners they would fit exact and no one would ever know that the guitar was once fitted with non original tuners. The new tuners work flawlessly! Enough said!
Guitar comes with a brand new hard-shell case.
This guitar was used for the rhythm guitar parts in the recording “The Pussy Cat Dance” by Jon E Blade. Check it out on youtube!

Price is firm.
Thanks for looking!

Music & Instruments