Dupont Reviews?

Charlie Ayers

I haven't gotten my hands on many Duponts (they're scarce in Salt Lake City, believe me). Are the new ones thought to be as good as the older examples? I believe that Dupont expanded from a 1 builder shop quite some time ago, and I suppose the quality may be different now? I see that R F Charle no longer carry them, but I'm not sure why.... Specifically I would be most interested in the MD-50.

Charlie

Josh Hegg

I have an 2001 MD-50B and love it. It plays great and sounds great. Worth every penny.

Cheers,
Josh

Charlie Ayers

Thanks Josh; I'm sure you get to see a lot of Sel/Macs. I guess Jacques M. is the sole importer now?

Charlie

pallopenna

Brian Wolfe at acousticmusic.org is also starting to import them. I bought an MD-50 from him last month. Brian is a great guy and easy to deal with.

-Paul

chappie

Hey Charlie,
I bought a Dupont MDC-50 (the 14 fret D-hole version) of the MD-50... and it blows me away. I honestly would never want another guitar. I played an identical version of the guitar a few months before I bought it (from Jacques Mazzoleni) when Barry and Rich from Hot Club of Philly were visiting NY... Rich was generous enough to let me play the guitar through the whole night, trading with me and I fell in love with it.
I was lucky enough to be able to drive to Jacques' place in Baltimore and try out a dozen or more guitars... including a Selmer, a Busato, 2 Favinos, a few Hodsons, and four Dupont's including a Vielle Reserve (which I couldn't afford but to my ears was no better or worse than the other Duponts, which were consistantly well-made and lovely sounding.) I think the craftsmanship is amazing and the sound can't be beat. It is the lightest guitar I have ever played as well, with a very thin top. The only other guitars I have ever played that come close, for me, are a couple of vintage Favino's and Rodrigo Shopis's guitars, which in my opinion are SUPERB also.
The deal with Maurice Dupont is that he is a little crazy and particularly French---a potent combination. He alienates a lot of people. His previous American dealer broke off with him after many years. He won't answer emails but his wife does after a time. He doesn't produce that many models per year and in my opionion just does as he pleases. Jacques has confirmed much of this. If you want a Dupont, Jacques is a good guy to deal with and he knows a lot about these instruments.
-Chappie

scot

I've got a 12-fret d-hole from 1993, it's a wonderful guitar. The fit and finish are superb and so is the sound - perfect except for a wolftone on the low Ab. It's an absolute cannon, equally good for rhythm or solo. I've also played some of his flattops and archtops and they are nice too. I don't know that I ever played a Dupont that was not a pretty exceptional guitar.

I've been to his workshop in Cognac, which looks like any other house along a canal in a residential neighborhood except that the carport is stacked to the ceiling with wood. MD is a big guy for a Frenchman, he's intense and clearly he's a man who was born to build guitars. He had 6 or 8 people working there and they make all kinds of things in the shop - when I was there they were finishing up a batch of Weissenborn style lap guitars and a batch of sunburst Les Paul copies. Plus they were roughing out cello tops on a CNC machine for someone else. The shop was pretty orderly - it looked like a good place to work. His business office did seem to be kind of disorganized - not all that unusual among craftsmen.

There is an excellent article about Bill Collings in Fretboad Journal this quarter - Maurice Dupont and Bill Collings appear to be a lot alike in their approach to building guitars in the small factory environment. Similar types of guys, too - maybe that's why both are so successful at building guitars.

Regards
Scot

Fopa

I bought my MD-50 about six months ago and love it. For awhile I was more in love with my Shelley Park Encore, but lately I find I'm playing my Dupont more. I'm a beginner at Gypsy Jazz, but Pazo from the QHCSF played on my Dupont and he thought it was a great guitar as well. Mind you, Pazo has about 5 Duponts himself.

chappie

Look at how many people use Duponts on the guitar wars thread... that's just an informal poll but it says something...
Chappie

Charlie Ayers

Thanks for all the input, gents. I'll definitely need to try one. This forum has been fairly lively of late......

Charlie

Charlie Ayers

I'm surprised to learn that the Dupont warranty is only 5 years; every other maker of guitars of that quality and price offers life-time warranties, in my experience. Has anyone had warranty issues? Are they difficult to deal with, long-distance (or does Dupont pay for any work to be done by a more local luthier?)?

Charlie

MinorBlues

Where did you all buy your dupont guitars from? I'm guessing you ordered them online?