Resetting the neck of a Gitane 255

therealguyfi

Since getting my Dell Arte my Gitane has rarely left it's case. It's a quite loud guitar but the frequencies are not quite right, too much top and bottom. I think a big part of this is the shallow neck angle. I'm considering having a friend reset the neck for me. He did a good job on a guild once but has never worked on a Selmac before. I'm not too concerned about cosmetics, as the guitar has already been quite modified.

Opinions?

Jeff Moore

I did it to a D-500. It worked. In terms of sound, the top came down and the bottom came up. I radically raised the angle such that the bridge height is now around 29mm or 1 1/8" on the low E. The top has gone concave from the distress it caused, but the sound remains. To be fair I did some other frankensteinish mods (new neck join - 16th fret, but did nothing to the top and bracing except cut away enough for a new cutaway.
My uneducated theory tells me that more pressure on the top, means a more unified sound due to the added stress. With a sample size of one, it validates the theory?

therealguyfi

Jeff, did you change where the neck met the body? If so this would change the position of the bridge on the top of the guitar (perhaps putting it an area not designed for that load). Or am I misunderstanding your comment re 16th fret?

Jeff Moore

I did change where the neck attaches to the body in as much as I moved the cutaway and the neck block back towards the bridge. The position of the 12 fret at the rim of the body stayed the same. So neck - body - bridge didn't move relative to one another. Only the cutaway and neck block moved. So, for instance, I never messed with the mustaches at all.