Dear Mr Screwluss,

How lucky you are with inheriting such a fine piece especially as it is a "Selmer Maccaferri" model basically only made in 1932 and 1933.

Despite the annoying obviously forged and crudely carved signature I would be careful with the application of the power sander on such a rare and valuable instrument.

How fortunate that Mr Reinhardt almost exclusively played the oval hole model introduced from 1934 rather than the 1932-33 D-hole model. Except of course if your have the year wrong and it is serial number 503 (made in 1940) that you have! (in which case the museum of the Conservatoire Nationale in Paris would very much like to get in touch with you!!! And except of course if he borrowed Auntie Edna's guitar (he was rather inclined to borrow peoples' instruments rather a lot in which case it was most inconsiderate of him to have defaced such a fine instrument in such a way!).

I am so sorry to have heard of Auntie Edna's unfortunate encounter with the no. 73 bus especially so since it is a route that I am rather fond of since many a time I travelled to my club in Park Lane on its upper floor.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Guitar