Patenotte is a family of French luthiers from Mirecourt, a town long regarded as one of France's most important centers for lutherie. Louis Patenotte was building guitars by the 1930s, becoming known for Selmer-Maccaferri-style instruments featuring a distinctive 'bean-shaped' sound hole that appealed to early gypsy jazz players. His son Claude Patenotte carried on the workshop, continuing to build in the same tradition until his retirement in 2010.

The instruments are short-scale Selmer-style guitars, typically joining the body at the 14th fret with a 645mm scale length that allows easier reach for difficult chord shapes than longer-scale gypsy guitars. Models such as the Patenotte 250 and 254, along with various 'bean-hole' Manouche guitars from the 1950s and 1960s, are prized by collectors of vintage gypsy jazz instruments and trade through specialist dealers and forums like DjangoBooks.

With production ended and no successor continuing the workshop, Patenotte guitars exist only as a finite vintage catalog. They remain a respected name within the gypsy jazz community for their rich, projecting tone and traditional French Manouche construction.