Looking for a used guitar - some general questions

Nejc · July 2015

One more thing. Never let the amount of money you spend on 1 guitar be a factor on how you gonna treat her or how long you gonna keep it. I bought mine altamira for a really low price (when the seller heard that I have drove over 300km in one way to get it he dropped the price in half immediately). And no matter how "cheap" of a guitar I have I doubt I am gonna give this one away. What I want to say is that sometimes a cheaper guitar can have a nicer sound than a more expensive one.

pickitjohn · July 2015

@woodamand

Where are you located, If your anywhere near Corpus Christi TX PM me got 5 different Gypsy Jazz Guitars you can try. you can see some of them in my Avatar picture.

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woodamand · July 2015

I am in Portland, OR which does seem like the hinterlands for manouche guitars, or I would run right down there to Texas. This does seem to be a niche within a niche - for instance I saw a John Jorgensen model on ebay for a good price, but not having had my hands around the neck, not to mention having any idea how a typical once might sound, is a bit daunting. OK, no names to avoid, but the one thing I must avoid is the impulse buy! Still not looking forward to having to buy strings all the time, but I used to do this back in the 80s in my youngster days, had to change strings every other week since I thrashed them so much - I am not quite so out of control now. Which leads to one more question - they thirds are always wound, right? This works fine with flatwounds, but just thought I would ask, since it seems like there is a lot of talk on how quickly the 3rds unwind.

Michael Bauer · July 2015

Dana--

Portland has a pretty thriving gypsy jazz scene, and I think there are jams on occasion that you could attend and probably try all sorts of guitars. Who knows, someone there might even be looking to sell one! Bob Holo, one of the holy trinity of US makers, is in Portland, although he's not open to the public. Put a post up about looking for GJ in Portland and I'm sure you will get some responses. Then you can try stuff in person and at least get an idea what you like and what offers the best bang for the buck.

Michael

woodamand · July 2015

Michael
Good idea, I will do that, but no doubt will try and make it to Seattle as well.
Dana

Chiefbigeasy · July 2015

Dude, get to Seattle and see Michael. A gypsy jazz guitar sounds different than any guitar you've ever played. If I lived that close to Djangobooks, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

Secondly, I've owned an Altamira "D" hole model and it sounded great, but I did a lot of fiddling with strings and picks to get the sound I wanted. I'm sure the same could be said of almost any quality guitar, so long as the basics are good.

Finally, buy the most and best guitar you can buy the first time. If not, you will have wasted time and money getting what you wanted in the first place. I ended up selling the Altamira--sometimes wish I had kept it as an alternate--to get the French guitar I wanted all along.

Jazzaferri · July 2015

What you hope to pay for as you go up in quality among other things is responsiveness. How well does it respond to slight changes in picking. Helps develop a good sense of dynamics which IMO is not well utilized these days.

woodamand · July 2015

I am certainly planning to go to Seattle next month. At the same time, I am trying to sell one of my other instruments - anyone interested in a '38 Martin Tenor sax? - so that I can maybe get up to $1800 or so in order to get a "keeper" guitar. I fully expect to mess with strings and picks for a long time until I hit the right groove. As I mentioned in this thread, I have enough cash right now to buy an Altamira or Gitane, but you have all pretty much quashed that idea in my head.

woodamand · July 2015

and yeah, I keep asking myself the same question as I was looking for a soprano sax - why do I always get interested in instruments are so not in the mainstream????