Choosing the guitar

pickitjohn

Went to see a GYPSY

Sees your guitar arriving safely and bringing out your most creative & inspiring playing.

I'm with her!!! :peace:

pick on

pickitjohn

Jeff Moore

Mateo,
I don't know. Most guitars (I think) have a little bit of extra height on the 0 fret. I've bought some nice ones and that seems standard. I don't know why.
The business on the Lebreton neck, was as I said, a lot of extra work for him, and I don't know the purpose. I don't care much either cause I could correct it myself. I've talked with Jean a couple times. My French is zero, and his English is not that strong, and I really didn't care to use up phone time on that when there were more interesting things to talk about.
Mostly we communicated by email anyway. Even so, what I really wanted to know was how he had developed his approach to building and bracing, but I'd have to learn French to have an adequate discussion of all of that, and he may not want to disclose what I'd want to know anyway. And, do I really need to know, when I've no intention of building guitars? In the end, I just wanted him to build what he has clearly developed, I'm just childishly interested in everything, cept learning French.
I've come to think that guitar builders tend to have strong predispositions about many aspects of their craft, plus there is a lot of pedagogy (especially around set up and playability) that I've come to distrust. In short, I trust the production of sound to them and the set up to me. Regardless of the builder, I'll feel compelled to address the bridge, fret leveling, 0 fret, compensation, even neck width myself on any guitar. The Busato didn't get touched though, and that's partly why I sold it. I'm lucky to have been able to afford the guitars I have. To me many of the new builds are comparable to anything old or new, so I wasn't going to baby them (play them without the set up I want).
Aren't we right smack in a "golden" age for guitars? At least as regards Selmacs.

Galvanometr
I bet all that boxing and packing on a new guitar would delay the drying effect of low humidity for many days of bad weather shipping. I don't understand how temperature would negatively affect a guitar, not that it wouldn't, but how? Even if you freeze a guitar, what happens? Doesn't sound very nice but there's not much water in em ................?

Al Watsky

As long as the guitar is allowed to come back up to room temperature before you take it out of the case the cold won't damage the instrument.
The damage would happen if you received an instrument that was below freezing and unboxed it and then took it out of its case.
When you take delivery if it was cold, say below freezing let the instrument stay in the shipping carton for several hours.
Then take the case out of the carton. Feel it , if it still seems to be very cold, no worries just leave it in the case.
Several hours later open the case and watch to see that moisture does not collect on the finish.
If the guitar is still too cold you will see the finish fog, thats condensation.
You don't want to see that, just close the case and wait for the instrument to come up to normal room temperature.
You will have no problems.

galvanometr

I was worried about the new varnish going through radical temperature changes. Didn't realise I could simply stretch that defrost time by not unboxing it like a kid on christmas morning. It's gonna be though self-denial battle, but I'm gonna make it. Freezing phase I cannot influence, but hopefully case will help a lot. Thanks for all the information and wishes, fingers crossed.

Jeff Moore

Galvanometr
Breathe in.............................................Breathe out. Your in control, Your inner child seems to be beyond its capability to wait and is full of painful expectations, but its just an illusion!

Just unpack the damn thing when it arrives?

pickitjohn

Good post Jeff.
No need to freak out.

Pick on

Pickitjohn

galvanometr

Guitar has arrived in one piece, everything was OK.
If I only could describe sound with words...
But there's one thing I can say for sure, man, is this guitar loud! With right pick it's more of an ancient beast than new guitar. I can directly compare it to just one manouche style guitar, but WOW, no real comparison there.
Attached you can find a few pictures.

One question regarding opening up of the new guitar: Is it more related to "freshness" of the wood or more to new shape and tension the wood has recently received? Maybe something else? What is it in terms of physics?

As the last thing I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed into this thread and helped me a bit with suggestions and so on, appreciate it.

Jazzaferri

There are theories but ...it's like a roomful of pendulum clocks....start them all off out of synch and not too many days after they are all beating in synch....

pickitjohn

@galvanometr

So glad your Beautiful Guitar arrived safely. May she bring you inspiration, joy, and wonderful song. :whistle:

pick on

pickitjohn

Jeff Moore

How come you get three neck stripes and I only got two!!!!!!!!!
Really glad to hear your quick review!
I play mine and get a feeling like piloting a small plane. I fingerpick in multi styles and also do GJ. I think it excels at everything; unique and expressive even cruising miles from swing. Its a guitar rather than just being a GJ guitar.

Mine also has that "half dark, half light" side woods and a regular pattern on the back. The suntanned thing he does on the tops makes the best looking tops around.
Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Its a thrill.