I got curious about Django Reinhardt. Considering that he became one of the world's foremost jazz guitarists with two of his left-hand fingers paralyzed, the logical thing for him to do would be to try to make the most of the digits he had left. And although it might throw his hand out of position for the most efficient use of his fingers, there could very well be occasions when the easiest way for him to do it would be to use his left thumb to fret a bass string.

As I said, I've seen a number of video clips of Reinhardt on the Classic Arts Showcase channel, but in none of them did I see him use his thumb. Just out of curiosity, I check YouTube, and lo! there he was. Unfortunately, most of the videos under Reinhardt's name were sound tracks of him playing under a still photo, or someone else with a perfectly good left hand playing Reinhardt's arrangement of something.

But there was one video showing Reinhardt himself. The quality is not good because in a lot of it, there's a dark shadow on his fingerboard, yet it's absolutely fascinating to see (and hear) what he can do with those two functional fingers.

One of his backup guitarists (big oval-ish soundhole--the soundhole on Reinhardt's guitar is small) uses his left thumb a lot. At a couple of points, Reinhardt reaches over onto the basses and catches the sixth string with his second finger.

But--further along, a couple times he clearly flicks his thumb up to catch the sixth string!

Watch for the thumb!

Ah HA!!

So, iancarterb, you are indeed right!

Don Firth