5 gypsyjazz guitars audio test

duotilt · August 2012

The 5 guitars are :

Rino Van Hooijdonck
Gerrit Van Bergeijk
Geronimos Mateo
Gitane DG 300 John Jorgensen
Gitane DG 250 M

I have tried to record it 5 times in the same way.
I am curious what is going to be the favorite. I have got one, of course :-)

http://youtu.be/b2SYgltZLpg

mcneely11 · August 2012

Interesting, could you list the price of each?

I liked the Gerrit Van Bergeijk personally but the biggest thing I take away from this is that Gitane does a great job making cheap guitars that still sound pretty good. I'm sure there's a huge difference in playability but sound wise the Gitanes aren't bad.

dennis · August 2012

cool! i was actually asked to do a test with my friend's vintage collection; i'm not a gear freak but it was very interesting to do this

Steveareno · August 2012

Interesting. In the first test I preferred the Garret Van Bergeik's tone. A bit wet, but very romantic (if that's the right word?) and sweet. In Dennis' comparison, I vote for the Busato (Moyen Modele petite bouche), though the Favino was a close 2nd. Nice dry, warm tone without any plinky overtones. Suprisingly, the Selmer sounded a little bright for me. Seems like most of the vintage stuff sounds nice and dry compared to newer GJ guitars. Thanks for posting.
Swang on,

HotTinRoof · August 2012

Another vote for the Garret Van Bergeik's tone. The Gitane's sound tinny to my ears compared to the others. :? The Hooijdonck almost sounds like a flattop?

For Denis' I am again right with Steveareano

1940's Busato Moyen Modelle. Many of the others sound too antique like the wood's time has passed. Dare I say that? :shock:

Bob Holo · August 2012

I suppose it depends on how they were made and how they were treated, but wood goes for a long time. Glue & frets & strings, not so much. Violins go for hundreds of years but are essentially "re-built" several times during that period. So, yes I suppose some of them could sonically benefit from a little restoration work, but at only 60 & 70 years of age I wouldn't think the wood itself was past its prime.

It was way cool to hear all of that, I don't think I'd be too quick to judge any of those guitars by what you hear on the video. In the last several years my ears have changed a bit... now I can't help but hear setup issues and other structural problems with guitars. It's annoying, but that's just how it is for me now so I guess I don't really have a choice of whether to like it or not. Hearing those guitars, I kept thinking "Hmmm... that one might need a fret dressing" or .... "strings sound pretty dead" or .... "sounds like that one might have a crack or topseam separation or a small area where a brace has popped free of the top or is getting ready to" or.... "Intonation isn't set quite right"... but again - I hear that sort of thing on every vintage guitar that hasn't been tuned to within an inch of its life. So it's sort of impossible to do a qualitative comparison like that unless you get every single one of those guitars tuned to the 9's and then put them all in the humidity controlled environment for about a week and then put new strings on them and then give those strings a couple of days to stretch and then go back and really sight-in the intonation and tune them all perfectly just before playing the piece - and play it into a TLM103 or other something like that. The amount of work required to do what Dennis did was pretty awesome and gives us a little hint at the guitars. But to get a real comparison that would allow a person to really compare them... woul be a hell of a lot of work. And even then, it's tough to hear guitars on a video and know their soul. Michael does the best job - far and away - of any guitar store I've ever seen in driving consistency into his videos. He and I have bopped back and forth on it for a while. Both of us have backgrounds in acoustics and recording and he's using really good equipment for his audio. But even now that he has his vids as nailed and perfect as is probably possible, I hear videos of guitars side by side - and I know these guitars - have played them - have studied them - and the video is capturing about a tenth of the experience of playing the guitar. Often the things that are so special about really good guitars don't come across at all in a video. For instance, Dennis loves that Selmer. Michael & Dennis & I have bopped back and forth on email about it. I've never played it, but if Dennis says it's really good... well... a betting man would have to say it's probably pretty damned good.

But yet... you and others who have commented on the various guitars are absolutely right. On the video it doesn't sound like anything special; but then again - hearing a good guitar through a lavalier mic and a set of computer speakers is like viewing a beautiful nude through the end of a pepsi bottle ;-)

dennis · August 2012

as bob mentioned , setup goes a long way. The ones that sound best in my video are the ones that went through the luthier's workshop (martin tremblay).

This was not done in any formal way; i told the owner that if he wanted to do these correctly, he'd have to bring the guitars to my studio where i have a dead room , and access to tons of high quality mics...

that said, my favorites (besides my ajl) were the selmer, the favino the maple body busato, the old looking busato, one of the castelluccias, the buccolo was surprisingly good for an entry level guitar...

duotilt · August 2012

Thanks for the respons.
In answer to the prices :

Rino Van Hooijdonck : 3700 dollars-3000 euro ( this model, a friend his guitar was around 3000 dollars)
Gerrit Van Bergeijk : 3000 dollars - 2500 euro ( now they are a little bit more expensive)
Geronimos Mateo : 2160 dollars - 1750 euro
The gitane guitars : depending where you buy.

And yes, it is difficult to make a conclusion, because we can record the best way, hearing
it live and acoustic beats of course the recordings.
About playability : the Gerrit V. is the most easy one to play, followed big Mateo, then the gitane DG-300, gitane DG250M and last the Rino V.
BUT :

the Rino V. has the best response, most dynamic and volume. It's like a piano with light keys, where the dynamics are weak and a piano with heavy keys more dynamic.
I was a few times at home big Rino ( lives about 25 miles from me) and we make the comparising with the other guitars, and live his guitar stands above all, much more volume, punch, dynamics ...
He is really a nice guy, I like to play with him, he uses his ears, and not try to play as fast as possible.He has first hand stories about gypsyjazz musicians.

Dennis, woow, what a collection guitars !! Great test . In this test the favino stands out, also punchy, bite, and still some warm character.
I think Rino love the fact that you use his intro lick from patrus53 :-)

HotTinRoof · August 2012

I don't think anyone is making a final judgement on these guitars and their manufacturers simply based on these videos.

Opinions were given simply based on the content provided.

Excellent info on wood Bob. Very good points. Would be fun to see/hear a video of a before and after setup on one of those old 40s jazz boxes.

Passacaglia · November 2012

dennis wrote:

cool! i was actually asked to do a test with my friend's vintage collection; i'm not a gear freak but it was very interesting to do this

Just coming to this. A luthier friend and I drew up a list, then let the other one know. We only agreed on the Busato Moyen '40's, lol.

Alright, this is just this moment's judgment. It will change in 3 minutes...

1. Busato Moyen Modele 1940's (oval)
2. Castellucia 1955
3. AJL
4. Selmer
5. Siro Burgassi 1939
6. Castellucia 1956
7. Busato 1930
8. Favino
9. Anastasio
10. Bucolo
11. DiMauro Modele Django

Pretty sure the Busato 1940's petite bouche would stay right up there. As with the Castellucia 55 and AJL, any one of which knocked my socks off. I usually like Favino sound, so surprised I hear it this way in this series. Didn't like the Bucolo, but nos. 9-11 could move...