Wandre Selene II Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1962), black hard shell case.

Wandre Selene II Model Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1962), made in Cavriago, Italy, red, cream and black smoke finish, plywood and plastic body, plastic sheathed aluminum neck with rosewood fingerboard, black hard shell case.

There are many titles one could bestow upon guitar artist Wandre Pioli, and "romantic" is certainly among them. Pioli designed plenty of guitars he cited as abstractly inspired by non-musical subjects, from seductive film stars to his love for his wife and child. This beautiful if highly eccentric "Selene II" model he claimed was inspired by a sleepless night spent staring at the waning moon! The "Selene II" is a second perfected variation of the model with an improved neck mounting system, the now-preferred Davoli pickups and no soundhole.

The Selene design is a variation on his slightly earlier "Waid" model, a semi-hollow guitar built on a thin, wide body with no soundholes. Compared to the Waid body the obvious difference is the contour of the upper edge, with no upper bass bout to speak of sloping up to a wide lower bout but a standard cutaway on the treble side. The most unusual shared feature is the top, which is concave instead of convex like almost every other guitar ever made. The top slopes inward and downward from the rims, leaving the metal neck extension/centerpiece fully exposed. While this looks quite eccentric, it does not affect playability in any negative way!

The edges are bound with heavy gold plastic and the sides covered with greenish smoke patterned celluloid. The top and back are covered with a thick coating of the unusually heavy Poly compounds Wandre worked with, in the amazing multi-color "candlesmoke" finish only his instruments carried. In this case a vibrant red outer area is smoked into a cream center to spectacular effect, creating a truly dramatic effect on the top and back.

Besides the unique aesthetics, the most trailblazing aspect of Wandre guitars is the aluminum-core neck. Over a decade before the likes of Travis Bean or Veleno, Pioli's instruments featured a thin, rounded aluminum neck/body centerpiece running from headstock to bridge. This example is fitted with a thin plastic neck sheath which many Wandre players feel contributes to a more traditionally playable feel than the raw aluminum below. The rosewood fingerboard has simple large-dot inlays and a zero fret. This later Selene features a metal-trimmed slotted mahogany headstock with Davoli-made tuners on either side and an aluminum nut spacer.

This Selene II has two Davoli pickups mounted in the "Model Korak" cream plastic pickguard/bridge assembly floating over the body, the entire unit adjustable for height at the bridge end. The two volume controls and a master tone are mounted to a stamped metal box lower on the top, which also houses the jack. Even the knobs are eccentric, with a sort of space age look to their flanged tops. The plastic pickguard also provides a chassis for the adjustable bridge with metal saddles mounted in a plastic trough adjustable for intonation via staggered thumbwheels at the back end. The strings continue on to the metal tailpiece, mounted at the lower end of the aluminum centerpiece.

The Selene II plays very well despite its eccentric look and has the special sparkling Wandre/Davoli sound in spades. Overall, this is another rare, beautiful and iconic instrument from that most inspired oddball Italian '60s guitar designer: Wandre Pioli, a true artist of the electric guitar.

Overall length is 42 1/4 in. (107.3 cm.), 16 1/2 in. (41.9 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 in. (635 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).

This lovely Selene is a nice example, fully original and generally well-preserved for its age. Wandre instruments are notoriously made up of many virtually irreplaceable (often plastic) parts, and this one has held its own over the decades better than many with all components original and intact. The Wandre logo is somewhat crudely hand-stamped into the headstock; this is the work of the factory and is original! The somewhat fragile plastic sheath covering the aluminum neck is has some discoloration and superficial tight shrinkage cracks along the spine and both sides along the fingerboard edge, but is not cracked through or peeling away. The cream plastic pickguard that houses the pickups and bridge is even better preserved with a couple of tiny shrinkage splits above the threaded adjustment shafts for the bridge.

The outer covering or the body remains original; there are a several long deep check marks to the top and one running the whole length of the back, with one larger chip to the bottom of the face has had red paint added to the wood underneath to make it less visible. The area by the jack has some chipping and scratching from errant plug-in attempts over the years. There is a gap to the binding at the base of the body and pins neatly holding it in place; this may be due to shrinkage of may simply be the way it was originally assembled.

The electronics work as they should and appear untampered with; the jack is a standard phone jack instead of the 5mm Geloso piece found on earlier Wandres; is this was changed it happened a long time ago. Overall, this is not absolutely the cleanest of the fantastic Wandre creations we have been blessed with recently but is a breeze to play, a classic sounding Pioli instrument powered by the Davoli pickups and just beautiful to behold. It lives in an old but not original US-pattern HSC. Overall Very Good + Condition.