2015 Dupont Busato Royale Brazilian

When I bought this guitar I wasn't looking to buy a guitar. I already owned a beautiful instrument and had long since accepted that if you want these type of guitars to sound beautiful then work on your technique like life itself depends on it (cause it kind of does:). Then I played this instrument and was blown away....I have only played a small handful of instruments in this league (I am blessed to have played many) and all are significantly more $ (although Bob Holo often builds guitars in this rarefied air for what I can only imagine is about $2 an hour:) If you are new to the style and wanting a instrument from the top shelf of all that is available then buy this guitar, ask questions later, and and spend years growing into it (Altimiras are also pretty sweet beginning guitars for about 1K). If you are a sincere practitioner and are already busting your ass relearning how to play guitar, you probably are able to hear the differences quickly between even high end instruments...this one doesn't disappoint..I hope it brings as much joy to you as it does to me. Peace R

Submitted by: roch on 09/28/2016 10:56:11 PM

I had the opportunity to play this 2015 Dupont Busato Royale, the one pictured here with the pretty sapwood stripe along the back. Did you happen to spend any part of your musical youth hammering away at a second-rate upright piano, and then one day sit down at a really good 9 ft. grand, play a chord and just about fall off the piano bench? Take that memory, and imagine that 9 ft. grand tucked under your arm - the first shockwave of sound rippling through your ribcage and along your arm - that's what it was like, playing this guitar. The sound is huge. Single notes explode out of the guitar. I haven't got a word for what chords do. And whatever is played, the whole soundbox shakes and vibrates like a living thing - like a wild living thing that wants to fly out of your grip and run around the room. The feeling of the first chord I played on this guitar is haunting me! I wonder if the neck on this guitar is particularly stiff, and drives the energy of the strings down into the body in a way that differs a bit from other guitars; it felt that way, to me. Even a very lightly played note comes out immediately with excellent clarity and a lot of volume; the guitar amplifies the slightest gesture. The tone is wonderful - of course it has a strong, powerful bass but it also has an equally powerful high end, with a bit of a scoop in the middle. There are certain frequencies that are sometimes strong on these guitars that I find fatigue the ear; not a trace in this guitar, I think it could be played hard all day and the ears would never get tired. The guitar has a wide dynamic range, it sounded clear and sweet played as softly as I could play it, and with increasingly heavy play the sound just got bigger and stronger and more beautiful. I can't remember ever playing a more powerful guitar .... I don't care for a heavy finish on a guitar, but I have to admit, I like Dupont's clear, hard lacquer - nothing at all like the thick, gummy stuff that is slathered on certain American big-name manufacturers - and on this guitar I remember it seeming very thin, excellent protection for the instrument of a kind that, no doubt, contributes to the brilliance of the tone. And the feel of the construction is such that I expect this guitar will still be making music somewhere 50, 60, 70 years from now.

Submitted by: Appel on 04/06/2015 11:11:01 PM