Hi guys. 1°GJ guitar

Roberto Billardello

Hello guys. After christmas i'll buy my first GJ guitar but i cannot choose one in particular.
I like the altamira m01 and the gitane dg250m, which are very similar in price.
After seeing some youtube videos i started to like the sound of altamira more. I have to say that i never tried those guitars. This is why i ask your personal opinions about it.
I won't upgrade anything.. so, consider the basic hardware of those guitars.

bopster

There are many owners of both guitars here on the forum. Someone will chime in with their experience!

VeedonFleece

Hi Roberto,
I would say that if you have the opportunity, then go with the Altamira. I have the Gitane DG-500 and the Altamira M01-D, so effectively the D hole versions of the ones you are considering. The Gitane is a good guitar and served me very well when I was starting out learning gypsy picking style. I have found it a lot of hard work to keep it in good playing order -- but some of this is no doubt due to the extreme conditions it has been kept in (mostly not climate-controlled rooms in the Eastern Mediterranean -- acoustic guitar hell!). It is loud and does have a reasonably close version of the 'gypsy sound'.

But the Altamira is a clear step above -- it is truly a lovely guitar, both to look at and to play. It's really got the dry, French sound and projects wonderfully. I usually have very impressed looks from audience members who tend to think it is worth orders of magnitude above what I paid for it. If I wasn't a terminal sufferer from GAS, I would probably be quite happy to keep this as my main guitar for years and years to come.

Having said this, I bought the Gitane about 7 years ago and since then I have tried some newer ones and they have impressed me greatly (so much so that I was asking myself did I really buy an actual Gitane all those years ago, or some strange knock-off). At the same time, when I bought my Altamira, I played another M01-D that was hanging right next to mine but with different wood (and cost about £100 more) that I honestly would not have paid even half the asking price for -- it sounded very dead and characterless. So, I guess the lesson here is very much -- play before you buy!

But my Altamira is wonderful.

Hope this helps.

Chris

JSanta

I had a DG250 before I purchased my Altamira MO1 and to me there is no comparison. The Altamira is a far nicer guitar with a more authentic tone. The neck is a bigger C profile which I love, it's more in line with the archtops I'm used to playing rather than the thinner C on the Gitane.

Having owned both, the answer is without a doubt the Altamira. Make sure you get the proper setup as well.

Jazzaferri

While it is always best to try before you buy if you can..........my recollection of comments here is that you would have a better chance of getting a good guitar with an Altamira.

There seem to be a few decent used ones that come up here from guys upgrading to a custom guitar.

If you get one that isn't quite what it should be, a little TLC on the bridge can make a pretty big difference.

DragonPL

I had a bad experience with a really crappy Altamira, which was almost like a kid guitar that you can get for a $100 (but it cost 10x more) . I have both the DG 250 and 250M and love them, and play them a lot. I'd consider the Gitanes, especially now that as you can see on this site, their prices went down. (Hopefully not the quality, I got mine used, which is something you can consider too)