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Indeed, the dell arte is very attractively priced.
From what I have read generally about the Reinhardts (and others from that era) they would play whatever was available, so although anyone may have a preference, these guys could make their music without worrying too much about what name was on the headstock - hard to believe for many of today's label conscious guitar snobs I know. Further to that, the shape, size or even strings were no barrier to genius.
That round hole Castelluccia is priced right for what it is. I had one similar years ago, sold it I think around $500 and it was easy to play with the right sound. This type is fine for a beginner to Gypsy Jazz. Most acoustics strung from a tailpiece across a floating (rather than fixed) bridge with suitably bright silver-steel strings - Argentines or similar - will get close, but a large part of the sound comes from the player's right hand and how you attack the strings. The only downside to these smaller bodied types might be a bit less overall volume but unless you are jamming in a noisy bar I doubt you would notice that. There are many similar small bodied guitars by Di Mauro, Patenotte and others around that all do much the same job; nice guitars, easy to play, bright sounding and usually fairly priced at around $500.
As I told on another post on here, I recently sold a full size 'D hole' Castelluccia for under $1,000, yes it seems cheap but that was the best offer after six months of advertising, so don't be afraid to look around and try making an offer.
That dealer in France is an established specialist shop so should be safe to buy from. They also have a similar Di Mauro at a slightly higher price. Do you know how much shipping from France costs? I have had guitars from France sent to Australia for 55Euros by Colissimo as long as they weigh less than 5kgs including packaging but many dealers prefer to use DHL which costs a lot more.
If you are looking in the $1000 up range then the choices get a lot wider, and there are Altamiras, Eastmans and Gitanes available from the Djangobooks store right here and other sources.
Many on here will tell you go for this, or that model usually based on their own personal preferences and experience but when you see how many guitars are out there from however many manufacturers it all gets a bit confusing, so either you have to get to try whatever you can get your hands on, and I don't know if there are many guitar shops in Thailand that stock Gypsy Jazz guitars, or you take a chance.
Your other alternative being in Thailand is to investigate buying direct from China, major manufacturers like Aiersi are making full size Selmer copies at $500 or less, yes the guitar snobs will criticise them and make suppositions about the materials and construction etc (often not even having played one) but they could be an excellent buy for a beginner; if you get good enough to justify the expense, you can look at the more expensive models in a year or two.
On researching the provenience of my old french instrument, I found gypsy roundholes of 3 different body shapes:
"Full body", like mine:
"Torres", like this one:
"Parlour", like for example Di Mauro "poeme":
The Ebay-Castellucia and the Reverb-Patenotte seem to be "Full size", so they should sound rather loud:
Thanks for the lengthy reply Chris. Wow, a Castelluccia for under 1k? I envy that deal. Despite having never touched any gypsy guitars, I somehow want a Castelluccia. Another reason I prefer to buy European and even maybe vintage is that they hold better value. I don't know how far I can get in terms of playing itself, but surely my appreciations for nice guitars will not diminish. I wouldn't call myself an accomplished jazz player at all, but I love my vintage Epiphone. I shall continue to wait for a deal. There's a 900$ Dell Arte in the classifieds, apparently.
Thanks for the info Willie. I really appreciated it.
I was wrong, not three, but four different sizes of roundhole gypsy guitars. "Full size", "Torres", "Parlor" and "Baby":
Guys, I just came across this other listing on Reverb. The price isn't that high. is it one of those full body guitars like the one I asked previously in this forum? he pluck a few strings in the video, it sounds kind of dry gypsy ish but I cannot tell.
https://reverb.com/item/40483022-paul-beuscher-vintage-manouche-gypsy-jazz-guitar-round-hole-bouche-ronde-very-likely-castelluccia-or-di-mauro?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=40483022
That looks more like the real deal, there might be some condition issues judging by the description but looks like it could be worth a punt
Hi stuology, by more like a real deal. Would you mind elaborating more? Does it look like a traditional 14th fret o hole?
Maybe I should ask the guy to try to play some rhythm to make more sense of the sound.
12 fret, full size, but cutaway = not full body.